Derailed Train Cars Carrying Sulfuric Acid Placed Back on Tracks Without Leaking
MARTINEZ (CBS SF) --Three train cars carrying sulfuric acid have been placed back on the tracks under Interstate Highway 680 in Martinez and moved away from the area where they derailed Wednesday morning, according to firefighters.
Contra Costa County firefighters announced via Twitter that all the cars had been put back on the tracks and the scene had been turned back over to the railroad
company at 7:48 p.m.
The tanker cars, which did not leak their contents, initially derailed under the highway near Marina Vista Avenue at about 7:30 a.m., Union
Pacific Railroad spokesman Francisco Castillo Jr. said.
Castillo said a Union Pacific crew delivered another company's 20 train cars on Monday from its tracks to an industry line used by a company
called Eco Services.
According to county officials, the company removes certain substances from the acid.
When the train was being moved, three of its tanker cars came off the tracks, Castillo said. One of the cars tipped over at a roughly 45-degree
angle. County hazmat crews that initially responded determined the tankers were not leaking their sulfuric acid contents.
Local activist Andrés Soto, a spokesman for Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community, was at the scene this afternoon.
"The whole community dodged a bullet," he said, given that the sulfuric acid didn't leak out.
He called the incident a "near miss."
Soto, whose group is against a proposal to deliver crude oil by rail to a Valero refinery in Benicia, said this represents a warning sign.
"Once again we learn transporting hazardous materials by railroads is a dangerous business," he said.
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