4 Boxcars Derail, Spill Lumber Load on Van Nuys Tracks
Several railroad boxcars carrying lumber derailed Sunday in a residential section of Van Nuys, near Los Angeles Valley College.
A northbound freight train had crossed Ethel Avenue and was approaching Burbank Boulevard about 2:30 p.m. when at least four boxcars jumped off the track, Southern Pacific Railroad spokesman Jim Loveland said. There were no injuries.
“This was a fender-bender kind of accident,” Loveland said.
Alma Barnes, 33, who lives next to the tracks and was home at the time of the accident, said she thought at first that it was an earthquake.
“The house was trembling, and my cat was going crazy,” she said.
The railroad company will remove the cars with cranes and repair the damaged section of track by early this week, Loveland said. He said there was no cost estimate of the damage and that the cause of the accident was not known.
The track is used for local service three times a week by firms shipping and receiving products by rail, Loveland said.
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