Residents in northwest Atlanta’s Whittier Mill Village neighborhood said it felt like an earthquake when a train engine and six rail cars derailed Sunday night.
A long rumbling sound shortly after 8 p.m. was the first indication of trouble at the busy Norfolk Southern transfer station along Parrott Avenue. Margo Edwards, a member of the neighborhood association, said she lives about a block from the crossing and typically tunes out the train noise, but this was different.
“Everyone on my block immediately walked out on our porches, saying, ‘What was that?’” she said. “That was more than the usual noise of the trains coupling and uncoupling.”
Edwards said local authorities arrived on scene about 8:25 p.m. A Norfolk Southern crew member was taken to a hospital with injuries and has since been released, according to the railroad.
Jack Zentner, another Whittier Mill Village resident, said he jumped up from his couch and ran outside when “all hell broke loose." He saw sparks flying and stepped in a steady stream of diesel fuel flowing from the wreckage, he said.
He and another neighbor tried to help.
“Ultimately, we climbed up on the locomotive to see if there was someone in there,” Zentner said. “We yelled in. We couldn’t hear anyone.”
According to Norfolk Southern, nearby Proctor Creek, which deposits into the Chattahoochee River, was not impacted by the fuel spill. The “minor diesel leak” has since been addressed by railway personnel and environmental contractors, company spokesman Jeff DeGraff said.
“Crews began working overnight to re-rail the equipment and repair track damage,” he said Monday in an emailed statement. “Train traffic through the area was restored just before 4 a.m. this morning on a side track. They continue to work on the other tracks involved.”
The cause of the wreck is under investigation.
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