A Union Pacific train has derailed three miles west of Carroll, in an unincorporated area local residents call Maple River Junction.
Carroll County Sheriff Doug Bass says it happened just after seven this morning. Twenty-six railroad cars left the track. Some of the cars were carrying lumber. Other cars had canned pineapple and possibly bottles of wine, according to the sheriff.
No one on the train was injured and the wreck is not affecting vehicle traffic. “When the train derailed, it broke apart and the intersection is clear,” Bass says. “…Damage done to local areas was very minimal.”
Bass says train officials tell him they’ll have the track open again within 24 hours. “They’ve got crews there right now that are starting to clean up and put rails back in,” Bass says.
This past January a Union Pacific train derailed about two miles east of Carroll. Thirty-three of the 135 cars on a westbound train carrying coal derailed. According to the newspaper in Carroll, there have been five train derailments in the Carroll area in the past five years.