Another train derailment.

Train derailment near Winona, cars in Mississippi River

DRESBACH, Minn. (AP) – A train derailment in southeastern Minnesota sends two people to the hospital, railroad cars into the Mississippi River and causes some to evacuate because of a propane leak.

La Crescent Fire Chief Bernie Buehler, the incident commander, says the accident happened just before 5:30 a.m. Wednesday near the Interstate 90 exit at Dresbach.

Buehler says one train coming from Portage was pulling 100 cars, the other was coming from La Crescent and carrying 15. Out of the 115 train cars, crews could only see 49 that were left standing. Some of the cars ended up in the river.

The immediate area has been evacuated because of a propane leak at a switching station, caused by the derailment.

Winona County Emergency Management spokesman Dave Belz says liquid ammonia is leaking from some of the cars, but isn’t a danger to the public.

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Information from: WXOW-TV La Crosse

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Dave Belz says liquid ammonia is leaking from some of the cars, but isn’t a danger to the public.

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Hope everyone is ok, but what about the fish???

-J.

It happened about 2 miles from my house. I drove by it this morning and in the darkness I couldn’t see anything. It sounds like a mess.

They didn’t say what caused the derailment?

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They didn’t say what caused the derailment?

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They’re guessing it was a head on collision between the 2 trains.

It’s hard to believe something like that can happen with todays technology.

Or the big freakin’ lights on the front of the trains…

I’m guessing someone was literally asleep at the wheel or the switch?

amonia was on land, only 49 of 115 cars still on the track, luckily no major injuries… and it sounds like everything is ok including the fish. It was a track switchover, one side swipe the last few cars of the other.