Last Thursday morning, nearly a dozen freight train carriages went off the rails in Michigan, close to a rail crossing.
The bulk of the derailed carriages were found to be empty, and the city of Romulus reported that there was no imminent hazard to the public.
According to Kevin Krause, the fire chief of Romulus, there has been no visible leaking. We can’t possibly see beneath those railroad carriages. As far as they could determine, there were no potential dangers.
Around 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, 24 miles south of Detroit, up to 14 cars reportedly went off the CSX rails. As seen in aerial photographs, some of the train cars were stacked on top of one another.
There were no reported casualties, and the cause of the break of the freight cars from the lines was not specified.
Wayne County emergency management authorities were on the scene.
It was the third train disaster in the neighborhood in less than two years, according to Mayor Robert McCraight.
Local reports indicate Romulus High School temporarily housed pupils from Romulus Middle School and Wick Elementary School.
The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) collects and analyzes data related to the country’s many modes of transportation.
Since 1975, the organization has recorded derailments, injuries, and deaths that have transpired during train wrecks. Train derailments are somewhat frequent, albeit fortunately, they seldom result in deaths.
There have been over 55,000 incidents when a train derailed since 1990, when the BTS first started keeping track, up until 2022. That works up to an annual rate of around 1,689 accidents.
The data collection includes freight and passenger trains, reducing even more the already low probability that a passenger may be hurt in a disaster.
Deaths caused by trains derailing are much less common. There were 132 fatalities due to railroad accidents between 1990 and 2022. That’s equivalent to around four fatalities yearly.
