Workers Patch Hole in Wrecked Train Car

Crews in Graniteville put a temporary patch on a railroad car that had been leaking toxic chlorine gas since a train wreck Thursday, and investigators looked into why a switching mechanism had been set to lead the train into railcars parked on a side track.

Nine people were killed and more than 250 were sickened by chlorine gas when a 42-car freight train bound for Columbia, S.C., rammed into a parked locomotive, toppling 17 rail cars and releasing the gas. Residents who were evacuated were to be kept away from the area until Wednesday at the earliest.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators have interviewed the three crewmen who had parked cars on the side track before the wreck. Investigators said a switching mechanism wasn’t turned back to direct oncoming trains down the primary rail. Switches are controlled manually in Graniteville.