SANDUSKY — At least 14 cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed on a bridge about a half-mile east of the Sandusky Amtrak station Saturday afternoon.
Connor Spielmaker, a railroad spokesman, said an estimated 10 cars in an eastbound freight train, most if not all tank cars carrying paraffin wax, derailed about 4:20 p.m. Some of the derailed cars blocked the line’s two main tracks, while at least two toppled onto Columbus Avenue below.
Shannon Bauer-Lerro, who lives nearby, said she heard a loud boom and the lights flickered at her house when the train derailed. A photo she took showed wax spilled on the street’s pavement.
Mr. Spielmaker said no injuries were reported. Paraffin wax is considered a hazardous material because it is shipped hot, he said, but is otherwise not dangerous.
At least one utility pole was knocked over by the derailment, and FirstEnergy reported more than 400 Toledo Edison customers without power in the area afterward, then another nearby outage affecting between 500 and 1,500 customers was reported slightly later.
Ms. Bauer-Lerro said it was “absolutely God’s divine intervention” that no vehicles or pedestrians were hit by the railcars or other debris that tumbled from the overpass onto Columbus Avenue, and it appeared to her that the bridge itself might have been damaged.
“Columbus Avenue is a main thoroughfare north-south to get to the bay,” she said, adding that not only does it attract substantial local vehicle traffic, it’s also popular with pedestrians — especially on sunny, cool autumn days like Saturday.
Sidewalks line both sides of the street, and a tank car partially landed on the west-side sidewalk while debris fell on the opposite side.
The derailment occurred at a location where there are switches and crossover tracks that allow trains to change tracks. It blocked a busy main line between Toledo and Cleveland used by scores of freight trains on a normal day as well as two daily pairs of Amtrak trains between Chicago and Cleveland, and could result in trains being rerouted to another line nearby that goes through Bellevue, Ohio.
Amtrak announced Saturday evening that its Chicago-Washington Capitol Limited train would bypass the Sandusky station because of the derailment, indicating it too will use an alternative route.
Similar diversions were possible for the other Amtrak trains scheduled to stop in Sandusky during Sunday's wee hours.
First Published October 8, 2022, 9:28 p.m.
