Freight train derailed by rockslide in West Virginia, USA

A freight train was derailed due to a rockslide on Wednesday, March 8 at 4.51 a.m. near Sandstone, West Virginia.

More specifically, the train mainly consisted of empty coal cars and, according to USA today, nine of them derailed and caught on fire along with its four locomotives.

The accident resulted in, at least, one locomotive and one fuel tank falling into New River in addition to three crew members getting injured. As a result, diesel was spilled into the river.

It is worth mentioning at this point that New River is considered to be one of North America’s oldest rivers and is part of the New River National Park and Preserve. Furthermore, according to the National Park Service, the river "has been in its present course for at least 65 million years" and part of it got diverted by glacial ice 10,000 years ago.

A plan has been deployed by the train company, in collaboration with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, for the diesel spill to be mitigated and remediated. This includes containing the leak and later removing contaminated soil and rocks from the site.

Finally, according to federal data from 2021 and 2022, there is an average of three derailments occurring in the U.S. per day. However, this number was about 6-7 times larger during 1979-1980.