Federal transportation officials said Monday they are investigating a train collision and subsequent derailment that injured two rail employees in North Texas, according to a company official.
A Union Pacific freight train collided with an unoccupied train that was parked on a siding, which is like a passing lane, around 7 p.m. Sunday in Chico, Texas, Union Pacific spokesperson Kristen South said in an email to The Associated Press. Chico is about 50 miles northwest of Fort Worth.
A locomotive engineer and conductor were being treated for injuries after the southbound train derailed following the accident. No one else was on board the freight train, South said.
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The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a safety investigative team to look into the derailment.
One of the injured employees was transported to a hospital by helicopter and the other was taken by ambulance to Wise Health System in Decatur, Texas, the Wise County Emergency Operations Center said in a statement.
Three locomotives and about 15 grain cars derailed, but the train was not carrying any hazardous materials, South said.
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The accident comes amid heightened attention to rail safety nationwide following a fiery derailment in February in Ohio and a string of derailments since then that have been grabbing headlines. The U.S. averages about three train derailments per day, according to federal data, but relatively few create disasters.
In Texas, asked about the speed of the train when Sunday's collision occurred, South said Union Pacific was investigating the cause of the accident and no other information was available at the time.
