CSX Train Derails, Destroys House and Seriously Injures Occupant in Atlanta
(Atlanta, Georgia – October 5, 2017)
The derailment of 14 rail cars of a 190-car-long CSX train in northwest Atlanta, GA at about 3:00 A.M., EDT Thursday in the 1300 block of Andrews Street added a rude awakening for DeAngelo Rivers. Mr. Rivers became homeless when one of the CSX cars crashed into his house as he slept. Atlanta Fire Dept. first responders rescued the trapped homeowner, and he was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital where he was admitted in stable condition with injuries to both legs.
“I’m trying to believe this is real,” DeAngelo Rivers, Jr. told reporters from WXIA, Channel 5 News as he surveyed the scene of his father’s house, rendered unlivable after the derailed CSX railcar knocked it off its foundation.
“Naturally, when the train comes by it shakes the house. Today it was making a lot of noise, and then the train hit the house as he was getting out of bed, and it pushed him toward the kitchen door,” recounted the son after conversing with his hospitalized father.
“You’re sleeping in your bed, and you hear a large rumble and then you hear a loud crash,” Atlanta Fire Dept. spokesman Cortez Stafford told reporters from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who added that “He’s very fortunate that he’s alive right now.”
CSX spokesman Rob Doolittle said the train, which allegedly had no hazardous materials in its consist, was on its way from Waycross, GA to Cincinnati, OH.
Investigators at the scene told Channel 5 that “a train can derail at low speed if there’s something wrong with the track.”
