Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star: Spanberger, city officials still want more answers on derailment

FREDERICKSBURG FREE LANCE-STAR, SCOTT SHENK

City officials and 7th District Rep. Abigail Spanberger met Wednesday morning at the site where train cars derailed and crashed into a sound wall and garages of a Fredericksburg apartment complex last month.

The congresswoman spoke briefly and was given an update from city officials, with both sides noting concerns remain about issues that led to crash and what the railroad company CSX is doing about it.

The gathering included Fredericksburg council member Chuck Frye and city Manager Tim Baroody. Along with visiting the site of the derailment, the group also paid a visit to the nearby rail storage yard near the Mayfield neighborhood, where there have been concerns for many years about rail cars holding hazardous materials being stored so close to a residential area.

The July 20 derailment involved five rail cars, which were improperly secured and rolled freely on the storage track toward the mainline. When the cars reached what is called a split-rail device the safety mechanism worked as designed by sending them off the tracks in order to prevent the cars from reaching the mainline tracks.

Two rail cars hit a sound wall between the tracks and Cobblestone Apartments. The sound wall fell onto several garages, causing significant damage. There were no injuries in the crash.

On Wednesday, Spanberger said tragedy was averted without any deaths or “major impact, but I think it’s a warning to all of us of what could happen” and what kind of materials are stored in the city.

Baroody, who said the incident was “unnerving,” noted that the city has not gotten any information about the track device or why the rail was allowed to be too close to the sound wall.

He also noted that the city hasn’t gotten an update on when the derail device will be moved, emphasizing that it’s “outrageous” the device was there at all.

Baroody said CSX is expected to give an update to city officials on Aug. 27.

CSX said in a Wednesday email that it “has proactively reached out to our neighbors and will continue to engage with community members and ensure impacted property owners are made whole. We are supporting Cobblestone’s efforts to expedite rebuilding the sound wall.”

Also, CSX added that a new derail device was installed farther south “to improve safety and mitigate any potential future impact to the sound wall. We are committed to learning from this incident and are actively taking steps to prevent a similar incident from occurring in Cobblestone and across our network.”

The tracks were in place long before Cobblestone apartments were built. The question remains how the sound wall and garages were allowed to be built so close to the tracks.

Spanberger said that was one of the questions she has asked CSX to address, along with analyzing where other derail devices are placed along the tracks.

While most of Wednesday’s visit focused on the July derailment, Spanberger, city officials and residents also stopped by nearby Mayfield to talk about how close the neighborhood is to the tracks and CSX storage yard, which sometimes houses tankers holding hazardous materials.

City councilman Chuck Frye said he wanted people to see “how close and also how unsafe it is if something were to happen in the city of Fredericksburg. And, I would say for the council, that we’ll continue to beat the drums of saying, you know, get it outta here.”

Frye and others noted that there is another storage yard in a rural area in Milford that can house tankers with hazardous materials, and that’s where they’d like to have them stored.

The councilman also pointed out that if a train incident with a hazardous material leak were to happen in the city, the impact could reach beyond Fredericksburg.

“Depending on which way the wind blows,” he said Spotsylvania and Stafford counties also could be impacted by a hazardous material incident.

Spanberger said there needs to be a “renewed look at the issue” of hazardous materials being stored so close to homes. She also noted that the potential of a large area of impact makes the situation a “regional issue.”

Fredericksburg Fire Chief Mike Jones said they use an app to track tankers with hazardous materials so they can monitor what is coming through or being stored in the city.

Frye added that city officials meet with CSX quarterly to address issues that include safety.

None of the cars that derailed in July were holding hazardous materials, but the incident could have been much worse.

Five cars derailed in the July incident, with two holding scrap metal, one with soybeans, an empty car and another loaded with lime, according to Jones. Another eight cars, which did not roll off with the others, held molten sulfur, a hazardous material that is a fire risk.

One man in the crowd said the city was close to being another Ohio, referring to the February 2023 derailment in the village of East Palestine.

Flammable liquids caught fire after the derailment, and the situation grew much worse after officials decided to “vent and burn” tank cars carrying vinyl chloride, which “resulted in a mushroom cloud that towered over the town and surrounding area,” according to a June National Transportation Safety Board report.

Jones said sulfur “can be a problem” and added that it was fortunate those cars carrying the hazardous material didn’t derail during the July incident.

Trudy Smith, the head of the Mayfield Civic Association, attended the gathering and said they want tankers with hazardous materials to be stored in Milford, not next to their neighborhood.

“It’s hazardous, it’s too close to a residential area,” she said.

Frye agreed, adding that Baroody has sent a letter to CSX asking that the hazardous material tankers be stored in Milford, “where, if something happens, you’re not affecting families.”