Two freight trains collided at a rail intersection in southeastern Missouri on Saturday, triggering the collapse of a highway overpass when several rail cars derailed and struck a support pillar, authorities said.
None of the seven people hurt - two aboard the trains and five people who had been in cars on the two-lane overpass - suffered life-threatening injuries, Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter said in a statement.
"One train T-boned the other one and caused it to derail, and the derailed train hit a pillar which caused the overpass to collapse," Sheriff's dispatcher Clay Slipis said of the pre-dawn crash near Chaffee, about 15 miles southwest of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
The crash, which involved BNSF Railway Co and Union Pacific <UNP.N> trains, also sparked a fire when diesel fuel leaked from one of the train engines, Slipis said.
Just over a week ago a commuter train derailed in Connecticut, striking another train and injuring more than 70 people during the evening rush hour.
Then on Thursday, a truck crash triggered the collapse of a bridge in Washington state, sending two cars plunging into the frigid Skagit River and raising concerns about the nation's aging infrastructure. Three people were rescued.
In Missouri, the National Transportation Safety Board said it had dispatched a team to investigate the train crash. Neither BNSF or Union Pacific officials could immediately be reached for comment.
A regional CBS affiliate, KFVS12, said that the Union Pacific train had been hauling vehicles and auto parts from Illi
None of the seven people hurt - two aboard the trains and five people who had been in cars on the two-lane overpass - suffered life-threatening injuries, Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter said in a statement.
"One train T-boned the other one and caused it to derail, and the derailed train hit a pillar which caused the overpass to collapse," Sheriff's dispatcher Clay Slipis said of the pre-dawn crash near Chaffee, about 15 miles southwest of Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
The crash, which involved BNSF Railway Co and Union Pacific <UNP.N> trains, also sparked a fire when diesel fuel leaked from one of the train engines, Slipis said.
Just over a week ago a commuter train derailed in Connecticut, striking another train and injuring more than 70 people during the evening rush hour.
Then on Thursday, a truck crash triggered the collapse of a bridge in Washington state, sending two cars plunging into the frigid Skagit River and raising concerns about the nation's aging infrastructure. Three people were rescued.
In Missouri, the National Transportation Safety Board said it had dispatched a team to investigate the train crash. Neither BNSF or Union Pacific officials could immediately be reached for comment.
A regional CBS affiliate, KFVS12, said that the Union Pacific train had been hauling vehicles and auto parts from Illi
© Thomson Reuters 2013
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