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Train derails near Corcoran

Man escapes injury after a rail car hits his truck.

David Deniz was sitting in his silage truck at a railroad signal southeast of Corcoran Monday morning when he noticed something was wrong with the freight train passing in front of him.

A loud thumping noise was coming from some of the railroad cars, and the track was vibrating, which sent rocks and debris flying into the air.

As the end of the train crept closer to his truck, Deniz said he realized what was happening.

"I noticed the train was coming off the rails," he said. "The back car was completely off the railing."

Within seconds, the back of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway struck the front of Deniz?s truck, smashing the passenger side door and cracking the windshield.

A slightly shaken Deniz walked away without a scratch.

"It was just kind of shocking that it happened," the 42-year-old Hanford resident said. "I absorbed the impact pretty well. I?m just glad to be able to walk away from this."

"It just makes me more grateful to be alive and all in one piece. It could have been a lot worse."

Eighteen of the train's 45 cars derailed at the railroad crossing, located southeast of Corcoran, said Sgt. Sam Samra of the California Highway Patrol in Visalia.

The freight train was traveling from Pasco, Wash., to Barstow. Most of the cars that derailed were empty, except for a few that were carrying particle boards used to build houses, said Lena Kent, a spokeswoman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.

This was the second train derailment in the Central Valley in more than a week. A tanker car carrying potentially dangerous agricultural fertilizer derailed and toppled over north of Laton on March 25.

"It's not becoming more common, it's just when it happens you hear about it more than you would a car accident on a highway," Kent said. "Transporting by rail has been proven to be one of the safest ways to transport."

The cause of the latest derailment is still under investigation. No one was injured in the 9:30 a.m. accident.

Authorities blocked off the railroad crossing from motorists as they searched through the wreckage. Sections of the track were torn up and will need to be replaced, Samra said.

Other Burlington trains were rerouted onto Union Pacific tracks. Passengers on Amtrak trains, which travel the Burlington tracks, had to be bused between Fresno and Bakersfield.

As Deniz watched investigators, he realized how lucky he was. "It's something else when you see that sucker coming at you," he said. "Guess I need to thank the angels for this one."