Cleanup continues after CSX freight train derails in New Windsor

ByEyewitness News WABC logo
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Cleanup continues in train derailment
Marcus Solis has an update on the freight train derailment in New Windsor.

NEW WINDSOR, New York (WABC) -- Crews continued work Wednesday to put a derailed CSX freight train back on the tracks at a railroad crossing in New Windsor, where it collided with a forklift.

The locomotive ended up across a roadway, and CSX crews began working to re-rail and remove some of the cars Tuesday evening.

The train was heading from the Albany area to Georgia when it struck a steel company's forklift that got trapped on the tracks when the crossing gates came down. The man driving the forklift jumped to safety.

The train consisted of three locomotives and 77 freight cars, including 38 loads of freight and 39 empty cars. The freight included sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide, as well as cardboard, corn oil and glass products.

CSX spokesman Rob Doolittle reported that there were no leaks of any hazardous materials, though one of the locomotives had been leaking diesel fuel.

A section of River Road adjacent to the derailment remains closed to provide a safe working area for crews involved in the restoration effort.

Eyewitness News viewer Joni Dunning Armstrong was driving on Water Street and came up on the train in the road.

"Most terrifying thing I've ever seen," she wrote on Facebook. "Sitting at a stoplight and seeing a train, on fire, jump the tracks and start up the road behind you."

Two crew members aboard the train suffered minor injuries.