Md. train explosion caused by chemicals, officials say
ROSEDALE, Md. Authorities are attributing the explosion on a derailed freight train near Baltimore to the chemical cargo in one of the cars.
CSX Transportation Co. spokesman Gary Sease said Wednesday that sodium chlorate in a car that derailed Tuesday in Rosedale exploded.
He says the explosion ignited another chemical, terephthlaic acid, from a second derailed car.
Sodium chlorate is used mainly as a bleaching agent in paper production. Oklahoma State University chemist Nick Materer says it could make for potentially explosive mixture when combined with an incompatible material such as spilled fuel.
National Transportation Safety Board Member Robert Sumwalt says investigators are reviewing video from the lead locomotive that may show the collision and evidence on the scene, but they haven't yet drawn any conclusions.
In the third serious derailment this month, a dozen or so rail cars - at least one carrying hazardous materials -- went off the tracks around 2 p.m. Tuesday in Rosedale, Md., a suburb east of Baltimore. Several rail cars caught fire, sending a plume of black and gray smoke into the air that could be seen for miles, and an explosion rattled homes at least a half-mile away. The fire was finally brought under control Wednesday morning.
While local officials breathed a sigh of relief that only one person -- the garbage truck driver -- was seriously injured and that the chemical fire didn't pose a greater risk to nearby residents, some areas of inquiry for investigators were beginning to take shape.
Robert Sumwalt, of the National Transportation Safety Board, said late Tuesday that the collision occurred at a private crossing where the only marking was a stop sign. He said it wasn't clear why the truck was crossing the tracks or whether it was authorized to be there.
The truck driver, 50-year-old John J. Alban Jr., was in serious condition Tuesday night at Maryland Shock Trauma, a hospital spokeswoman said. Two CSX workers aboard weren't hurt.
A team of 15 NTSB investigators was on the scene and would likely remain there for up to a week, Sumwalt said.
It was way too early Wednesday to put a damage estimate on the explosion, reports CBS Baltimore station WJZ