SEATTLE, Wash. - Crews have contained a 1,000 gallon diesel spill after two train cars collided in Seattle's SODO neighborhood, the Seattle News reports.
"We were performing a routine switching operation and apparently a string of cars somehow started moving and made contact with two idle locomotives that were sitting on an adjacent yard track," said Gus Melonas, spokesperson for Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railway.
Two cars containing particle board were derailed and fell into a leaning position. A fuel tank on one of the locomotives ruptured in the collision at the rail yard.
"We immediately plugged the leaking fuel tank and a team on site has contained the diesel fuel," said Melonas.
The state Ecology Department says the spill was contained at the scene and did not reach drains or nearby Elliott Bay.
An engineer who was sitting in one of the idle locomotives complained of some back pain and was taken to a local hospital.
Melonas says the collision did not impact switching in the rail yard or traffic on the mainline.
(This item appeared in the Seattle News Aug. 21, 2009.)
