DADE CITY, Fla. (AP) -- Two CSX cargo trains, one of which was from south Georgia, collided head-on Monday in eastern Pasco County, killing one crew member and injuring three others, authorities said.
The 2:30 a.m. crash derailed four locomotives and about 15 cars, including two tank cars carrying what a railroad spokeswoman said was a non-hazardous nitrogen fertilizer solution that leaked 30,000 gallons into a ditch adjacent to the tracks.
Killed in the accident was C.J. Jones, 28, of Carol City, a conductor on the northbound train, which was headed from Miami to Wildwood carrying rocks, according to CSX officials.
Treated and released from East Pasco Medical Center, Zephyrhills, was that train's engineer, E.E. Anderson, also of Carol City; and the crew aboard the southbound train, G.M. Whitehead, of Lake Butler, and W.E. Taylor, of Bartow, according to hospital and CSX officials. The southbound train was headed from Waycross, Ga., to Tampa and was carrying mixed frieght.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation by CSX and federal investigators, said Jane Covington, a spokeswoman for the railroad.
CSX sent two environmental contractors to the scene to contain the liquid fertilizer and to supervise its removal, she said. The crash also caused an unknown amount of diesel fuel to leak from the locomotives onto the site, Covington said.
She emphasized that the railroad has taken steps ``to make sure we do a good cleanup job.''
``They'll be doing water and soil sampling to make sure the product is contained, and that any remediation steps are taken immediately,'' Covington said.
Head-on collisions are rare; the tracks are controlled by signals similar to traffic lights and the system is designed so trains do not move to the next section of track until it is clear, she said.
The accident occurred in a rural area called Richland, between Dade City and Zephyrhills, parallel to State Road 35, in eastern Pasco County. It shut down about a mile stretch of roads from U.S. 98 to Otis Allen Road, according to Pasco County sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll.
