Train Derailment Forces Evacuations

A Southern Pacific freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed near this Ventura County coastal town Sunday afternoon after dragging the disabled, careening cars along several miles of track in a cascade of sparks.

Four of the 14 flatbed cars that spilled off the tracks just after noon were carrying two kinds of chemicals: a half-strength aqueous hydrazine solution used to make agricultural, metal-plating, plastics and photo-processing chemicals; and naphthalene, an industrial solvent for making other chemicals. Both chemicals can be toxic if inhaled but are not considered highly flammable, said Southern Pacific spokesman Mike Brown.

Hundreds of people--residents, surfers and oil facility workers--were evacuated from sunny stretches of beach near the tracks. Although smoke continued to rise throughout the evening from the tangle of cars, officials said none of the cargo was on fire.

Authorities reported no serious injuries. A television cameraman who ventured too close to the cloud of smoke was taken to an area hospital complaining of nausea.

While a Ventura County fire spokesman speculated the plume might be chemical vapors, smoke from railroad ties or grass ignited by sparks from the skidding cars, Southern Pacific cautioned that it was too soon to determine the source of the plume.

“There is some indication that there is some spilled material,” said Brown, but “there is no indication that hazardous stuff was burning.”

The accident disrupted Amtrak train service on the main San Francisco-to-Los Angeles route, requiring passengers to be bused between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Amtrak officials said service would resume today by rerouting trains around the site.

Fearing that the cloud might be toxic, the California Highway Patrol closed a 10-mile stretch of the Ventura Freeway, creating delays as long as four hours for Sunday travelers. Northbound traffic was routed through Ojai on the small, winding lanes of California 150 and California 33. Southbound traffic was turned around and sent back up U.S. 101.

Caltrans officials said the freeway could remain closed this morning, depending on cleanup and an assessment of the Old Pacific Coast Highway overpass, which was damaged in the derailment. The Old Coast Highway was not closed.

Officials said a broken axle apparently contributed to the accident, and witnesses reported seeing the 42-car freight train--en route from Los Angeles to Oakland--spewing sparks from its undercarriage as far as Camarillo, nearly 20 miles south of where it derailed. The train also kicked up rocks, showering them on motor homes parked along the Rincon Parkway near here.

In Ventura, Carl LaFlamme of Canoga Park was bicycling north with friends on a trail near the freeway when he heard screeching metal and looked south in time to see the train cars topple off the tracks.

“The cars slowly started tilting over like the back end was being dragged around,” LaFlamme said. “There was high dust clouds and rocks flying all over.”

Bill Hager, a fire investigator for the Ventura County Fire Department, said he found an axle lying in a brush fire three miles below the derailment site. The severe drag on the train did not begin until the last three miles, he said. A bearing in the axle “got overheated and seized up. The friction caused it to be so hot, the axle eventually broke off.”

The train’s conductor, Bob Nagle, said he was unaware of trouble until about half of the cars broke free, snapping the air compression brake line that threw the train into an automatic emergency stop. He said the train was traveling 56 m.p.h. in a stretch of track designed to handle speeds of up to 60 m.p.h.

“I looked back and saw clouds of dust and I knew we had a problem,” Nagle said.

The derailment was the second involving a Southern Pacific freight train this month. Two weeks ago, a tank car derailed, spewing its lethal cargo of pesticide into the Upper Sacramento River and poisoning a 45-mile stretch from north of Dunsmuir down to Shasta Lake. The cause of that incident remains under investigation.

Diann Papesch of Fullerton said she was driving north on the Ventura Freeway when she saw the train skidding along the tracks beside her. “There were a lot of flames coming from the rails,” she said. “The wheels were sparking and rocks were flying all over the highway.”

Pat Puckett, 32, of Ventura was fishing off the coast near Seacliff when “we heard a big boom and something scraping across the railroad tracks,” he said.

The American Red Cross helped evacuate about 250 people from oceanfront houses, the Mussel Shoals and Rincon surfing beaches, and the oil facilities. The evacuees were taken to the Ventura County Fairgrounds in Ventura.

Times correspondents Rhonda Nowak and Maia Davis contributed to this report.