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What if ??

What if these horrific train accidents had occurred on the BNSF tracks somewhere in the middle of Fresno??

BNSF-Kansas-1.jpgBNSF-Kansas-2.jpg

Freight trains pulling articulated, five-platform, 125-ton double-stack cars identical to the one that cause this accident transit Fresno many times each and every day.

This accident occurred on September 2, 1998, the 17th through 19th cars and the first two platforms of the five platform 20th car of westbound BN&SF freight train derailed at Crisfield, Kansas. The accident occurred when the 18th car from the locomotive, an articulated, five-platform, 125-ton double-stack car carrying containers, experienced a separation between the floor shear plate and bulkhead bottom angle at the leading end of the car’s B platform. The separation allowed the car to sag below the rails, catch a part of a switch, and derail.

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Photo courtesy of AP

    On March 15, 1999, Amtrak's "The City of New Orleans" struck a tractor semitrailer near Bourbonnais, Illinois.

    Eleven passengers on the train  were killed and    122 persons were injured.

    Can you imagine this one at the McKinley Avenue BNSF crossing?