Train derails after collision in Central Washington

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — A freight train derailed in Central Washington after a collision with a truck, one day after a train carrying crude oil derailed north of Seattle, authorities said.

BNSF spokesperson Courtney Wallace said the BNSF train collided with a semi-truck southeast of Yakima near Mabton just before 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Wallace told The Seattle Times that three locomotives and eight empty grain cars derailed, Wallace said. Neither the train crew nor the driver of the truck was injured, she said.

The Yakima County Sheriff’s Office said there were “minimal injuries,” and that the truck was carrying a piece of farm equipment.

Wallace said the collision is under investigation.

Diesel from two locomotives was leaking, the Washington State Department of Ecology said on Twitter, adding that teams were headed to the site.

On Tuesday morning, a 108-car BNSF Railway train carrying Bakken crude oil derailed in north of Bellingham, and several cars caught fire, forcing residents to evacuate for much of the day. That derailment is also under investigation.

 Federal and local authorities were investigating the fiery oil car train derailment north of Seattle near where two people were arrested last month and accused of attempting a terrorist attack on train tracks to disrupt plans for a natural gas pipeline.

Seven train cars carrying crude oil derailed and five caught fire Tuesday, sending a large plume of black smoke into the sky. There were no injuries in the derailment about 100 miles north of Seattle.

Officials were asked about recent attempts to sabotage oil trains, but they said the investigation was just beginning. Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board along with the FBI and other federal, state and local agencies were on the scene.