Web posted
Friday, August 29, 2008
2 dead after train and tanker collide near Medford
By SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press Writer
MEDFORD, Okla. (AP) _ A locomotive train slammed into a propane tanker truck in north-central Oklahoma Friday, triggering a huge explosion that killed two people and injured a third, authorities said.
"It blew the semi tanker apart," Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. George Brown said. "The cab was on one side of the train and the tanker on the other."
Mike Honigsberg, emergency management director for neighboring Garfield County, said two people aboard the Union Pacific train were killed.
The injured truck driver was flown by medical helicopter to St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, Kan., with third-degree burns over at least 50 percent of his body.
The accident occurred at 9:20 a.m. on U.S. 81 three miles south of Medford in Grant County, Brown said.
Union Pacific spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza-Williams said the truck was on the train tracks when the locomotive slammed into it.
"It was just a direct hit," Honigsberg told reporters at a briefing. "The train crew saw it coming and hit the emergency brake.
"In my opinion, that was a heroic effort because if they didn't, there was nothing to stop that train between here and Enid," which is about 35 miles south of Medford. "They probably prevented another major catastrophe."
Honigsberg said officials believe the truck driver had just filled up the tanker at the ConocoPhillips LP gas facility next to the accident site. The liquid propane facility was shut down briefly.
"The explosion was massive. It blew part of the tanker a quarter- to a half-mile away," Honigsberg said.
All that was left of the locomotive was a burned out shell. The explosion blackened the first three cars and left a large crater in the ground.
Joan Kretchmar said she was watering her flowers in front of her house less than a half-mile from the accident site when she heard a tremendous explosion, turned around and saw a giant ball of fire headed toward her.
"When I saw that ball of fire, it was devastating. It looked like it was coming right at me," Kretchmar said.
She said she turned and ran to her family's lawn mower shop on an adjacent piece of property.
"I was hysterical. I didn't know what to think."
The Union Pacific train was traveling from Wichita, Kan., to Fort Worth, Texas, with a load of flour, wheat, possible metals and some flammable substances, Espinoza-Williams said. None of the flammable substances leaked from the train cars.
Brown said some of the cars were hauling ethanol and methanol.
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