FOLKSTON, Ga. — Three CSX crew members have been taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after an intermodal train struck a standing rock train in Folkston, the railroad said in a statement this afternoon.
The collision occurred about 1:24 p.m. Two locomotives, two intermodal cars, and two rock cars derailed as a result, and a small fire resulted that has been extinguished. No hazardous materials are involved.
“We appreciate the swift response of local first responders,” CSX said in its statement. “CSX has deployed resources to assess the situation, remove the equipment, and restore the area. The cause of the incident is under investigation.”
The National Transportation Safety Board has announced it will also be conducting an investigation.
Charlton County Sheriff Robert Phillips reports the collision occurred just north of the State Route 121 overpass in Folkston. That bridge remains open, while the Charlton County Herald reports on Facebook that a number of downtown railroad crossings in Folkston are closed as result of the derailment.
Folkston, a popular railfan location, is about 35 miles southeast of Waycross, Ga., and 42 miles northwest of Jacksonville, Fla., It is a meeting place for CSX’s Nahunta and Jesup subdivisions, funneling traffic to and from the Northeast and Midwest/Waycross, Ga., respectively. As of 3:35 p.m. ET, the Amtrak Alerts feed on X reports the derailment has led to cancellation of Amtrak’s Auto Train today and tomorrow in both directions, as well as today’s Silver Meteor from New York to Jacksonville.
— Updated at 3:20 p.m. CT with map, background information on Folkston, and Amtrak cancellations; updated at 8:48 p.m. CT with NTSB announcement of investigation.
The picture shows two trains on the same track in the same block at the same time.
If track warrant territory, then someone was on the wrong track.
I’m confident the investigation will be able to find the causes. Thank God we only had minor injuries.
With this signal suspension it falls on signal maintainers to align switches properly.
Another repeat of the star’s collision. Suspension of signals needs crews to verify with personnel on ground how switches are aligned.
This is suspiciously similar to the Cayce wreck: maintenance in progress and manually aligned turnouts. Look for an edict from on high for movements through work zones to stop, check and then proceed.
“Trust the computer” will prevent human error
I heard the train go into emergency several seconds before a crash sound, so likely crew knew what was going to happen. Am glad no injuries worse than what they were. Maybe post a flagman at that switch to insure it is lined correctly, rather than trust a computer. But, what do I know……
Seen you heard the accident, I trust you gave your report to the investigators?
So which dummy ran a red light?
Probably need to wait for the findings of the accident report and not jump to conclusions that a “dummy” was in the cab and ran a STOP signal.
proceeding under authority of an erroneous EC-1that track was properly aligned will be the probable cause, but restricted speed doesn’t always work when train won’t stop
They didn’t run a red signal, they were running on an EC-1 (Track Warrant) authority during signal repair. It sounds some one reported switches where lined and locked for i032’s movement to the dispatcher when in fact they where not.
[Insert generic PTC quip here.]
One of the best comments I’ve seen here in years!