December 20, 2023 Collegedale, Tennessee
Southern Accent
Vol. 79 Issue 12
The student voice since 1926
COLLEGEDALE NEWS SPECIAL ISSUE This issue of the student newspaper is produced by the F23 Investigative Reporting class at Southern Adventist University and graphic designer Nickolas Nieves in collaboration with the Southern Accent.
Small town, big collision: Collegedale
remembers train derailment one year later
A locomotive engine stands between the train track and Tucker Road near Southern Adventist University’s campus. One year ago, three engines and 10 train cars were derailed near the Apison Pike/University Drive intersection in a messy collision with a concrete beam. Sunday, January 15, 2023. (Photo by Ron Cabacungan)
Amanda Blake Editor-in-Chief Elise Deschamps Alexis Dewey Hannah Johnson Jacob Nevis Contributing Writers When McKee Foods Security Manager Steve Littell heard the train sound its horn as a 135-foot-long concrete beam stopped over the railway, he knew it would be no ordinary lunch break. Prior to that fateful moment on Dec. 20, 2022, Southern Adventist University's campus had been relatively quiet. Most students had gone home for break. Christmas was just five days away. Parked on campus, near the old Duck Pond, Littell had watched workers remove a stop sign at the Apison Pike/ University Drive intersection to create space for large construc-
tion materials on their way to the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s (TDOT) Apison Pike improvement project. He had observed the first of two semi-trailers carrying a concrete truss beam drive safely across the nearby train track to deliver its cargo. However, it was on that day, one year ago, that Collegedale experienced its first train derailment in recent memory, the impact of which rocked the small college town of 12,000 residents, resulting in injuries and millions of dollars in damage. Residents such as Littell, who has since retired from his McKee position, recounted their experiences with students in the F23 Investigative Journalism class at Southern Adventist University. Detecting Impending Danger As the time neared 12:30 p.m., Marc Walwyn, a local attorney,
was driving east on Apison Pike alongside the track, nearing the intersection. He had already picked up his daughter from school, and the two were running an errand. When Walwyn saw the second truck transporting a concrete beam preparing to cross the track, he pulled out his phone to take a video. He thought footage of the beam traveling down the street and across the track would be fun for his son to watch later. Kelly Covington, a resident of Greenbriar Cove, a Collegedale retirement community, was walking along the Wolftever Creek Greenway toward the university campus, as she did nearly every day. She was on the underpass running beneath the railway as the truck traversed the track. Wright Brothers Construction Co., the company operating the Apison Pike improvement project, detained cars to allow the
truck driver to turn into the lane of oncoming traffic and clear the track, according to a police report on the incident. Jorge Luis Cruz-Vega, the driver from the Starrette Houston Trucking Company, LLC, turned left on Apison Pike and began crossing the railway. Cruz-Vega told police that workers with Wright Brothers directed his front escort, hired by Starrette Houston, to proceed across the track to the next intersection to block traffic coming from the right, and a Wright Brothers employee said they would block oncoming traffic on the bridge across the track, according to the police report. Cruz-Vega’s lead escort vehicle arrived north of the railway. “This load is 167’ overall length. I must use the oncoming traffic lane to make the right turn at the end of the bridge,” Cruz-Vega stated, as written in the report. “The contractor
… got out of his pickup on the bridge to hold traffic and waved for me to proceed across the bridge. I started driving across the railroad tracks, there was no train coming. No alarms and the cross arms where (sic) up.” Less than 100 feet from the crossing, Walwyn began filming. He said there seemed to be confusion among the transport crew leading and trailing the semi-trailer as to whether or not the driver should cross the track or stop. The crossing signals began flashing. Sonya Lewis, who was driving the rear escort vehicle, alerted Cruz-Vega via radio that the crossing arms were coming down, according to the police report. His oversize load was still on the tracks as an approaching train blasted its horn. See REMEMBERS on page 2
Train derailments spark increased focus on railroad safety Matthew Orquia Managing Editor Amanda Blake Alexis Dewey Jacob Nevis Contributing Writers Six weeks after a Norfolk Southern train derailment shook the Collegedale community, a similar but more consequential incident unfolded in East Palestine, Ohio, raising concerns about rail safety nationwide. Unlike the Dec. 20 Collegedale accident, which involved no hazardous chemicals, the fiery Feb. 3 Ohio derailment involved 20 hazardous material tank cars transporting combustible and flammable liquids and gas, according to a report published by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Among the hazardous materials: vinyl chloride, a cancer-causing chemical, which lingered in the air and water after first responders burned toxic substances to avoid an explosion. Half the town of 5,000 people had to be evacuated. That incident, along with other high-profile train derailments across the country, have resulted in increased national scrutiny of railroad safety, prompting students in the Fall 2023 Southern Adventist University Investigative Reporting class to investigate railroad safety in the Collegedale com-
munity. The pivotal questions explored for the project were: What level of awareness do local authorities have regarding substances transported through Collegedale? To what extent is the community prepared to handle a situation similar to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio? Moreover, what is being done by government officials, local leaders and Norfolk Southern to keep residents safe? William Wong, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), responded to the question about hazardous materials possibly transported through Collegedale in an email, stating: “Regarding the transportation of hazmat, I will first note that neither FRA nor any government agency can provide information that lists specific rail lines that hazardous material shipments traverse, as railroads consider such information to be proprietary, and doing so raises safety and security issues.” Instead, Wong recommended contacting individual rail carriers for information and data they are willing to release. In an email to the Accent, Norfolk Southern Senior Communications Manager Heather Garcia responded to a question about the materials that the company transports through Colledgale. “Norfolk Southern, like all
A train, operated by Norfolk Southern, runs past the Thatcher Switch Recreation Area in Collegedale. Several Norfolk Southern trains derailed this past year, including one in East Palestine, Ohio, an event that garnered national attention when half the town had to evacuate due to the release of toxic chemicals. Thursday, December 14, 2023. (Photo by Amanda Blake)
Class I railroads, is required by federal law to carry a variety of materials,” the email stated. “Incidents involving hazardous material spills are extremely rare, but we are prepared for them. Norfolk Southern has a team of regional hazardous material professionals and are backed up by specialized contractors that respond immediately to any incident.” Additionally, the email stated, Norfolk Southern has a program that provides safety training to emergency responders called Operation Awareness & Response (OAR). “We offer a streamlined process by which local officials can
request information specific to what kinds of materials may travel through their jurisdiction,” according to the statement released by the company. Collegedale Public Works Director Eric Sines said Norfolk Southern will transport anything it is legally allowed to, and some of the materials could cause an evacuation if spilled. “You can watch if you ever get close to the tracks, [and] every single one of those train cars is going to have HAZMAT plates on it identifying what type, not necessarily what exactly, but what type of chemicals are in them and what type of hazards they have,” Sines said.
Within the shipping industry there are around 300 standardized placards that first responders are trained to identify so they know whether evacuation is required at an incident. “We are trained on what the majority of those placards mean [and] how they need to be handled,” Sines said. However, when pressed for more information about placards he has seen, Sines responded by text, stating: “I've not really noticed any specific placards; just know they have to be on there.” The University Connection At Southern Adventist UniSee SAFETY on page 3
If you would like to be a contributor, contact Amanda Blake at ablake@southern.edu
2 | Wednesday, December 20, 2023
COLLEGEDALE NEWS REMEMBERS
continued from page 1 As Covington strode into the light on the other side of the underpass, her ears detected danger. “My father-in-law was a railroad engineer, so I know distress signals on a train,” she said. “ … I heard that train just laying on the horn, beeping, beeping, beeping, and I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, something’s about to happen.’ So I took off running and went back underneath [the track].” Capturing the Moment Walwyn lifted his phone once again to the car window. “I brought the video down because I thought I was finished, and then I heard the train wheels, and the noise got louder,” Walwyn said. “Then I realized something horrible [was] going to happen.” For Littell, the outcome was inevitable. Watching from the Duck Pond, he braced for the impact as he watched the semitrailer start and stop intermittently over the tracks. The train horn blared with urgency as he dialed 911. Jamie Heath, assistant chief of police for the Collegedale Police Department, later watched dash cam footage taken inside the lead engine where a conductor and engineer were working.
“They're raising alarm bells. … They both wrap their arms around each other and just kind of lay behind a [barrier] on the floor of the engine and just waited,” he said, describing the two railroad employees’ actions seconds before impact. “You just saw them. That's kind of sobering to watch, you know, to watch that happen.” The train moved at 30 miles an hour, with a weight of 4,538 tons excluding power units, according to a report Norfolk Southern filed with the Federal Railroad Administration. And just as Littell and others expected, the collision occurred. At 12:31, the train rammed into the semi-trailer, and the lead engine destroyed the beam, dragging remnants of concrete and two towing dollies along the track. Three engines and 10 cars skidded off the rails, slamming into one another, landing between the railway and Tucker Road. Some overturned. Metal and concrete remains scattered violently above the Wolftever Creek Greenway. Debris slid along rocks, raising a billow of dust that blanketed the chaos. The lead engine stopped about 10 feet away from where Covington stood on the Greenway in a state of complete shock and worry. Several hundred feet away, Southern student James Templeton was certain someone was injured as he watched the train make impact with the
concrete. He had been walking across University Drive to eat lunch at the Village Market before the crash occurred. Camera rolling and in utter disbelief, Walwyn captured the lead engine’s collision with the beam. “What a mess, Priscila,” he exclaimed, words drawn out in shock. “Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no.” Priscila is the name of Walwyn’s wife, who was actually out of town the day of the derailment. “I had called out for her, just as a reaction to the accident,” he said. Walwyn described watching the crash and derailment as an out-of-body experience. While filming, he was certain the semitrailer would move or he would wake up from a bad dream. “You see crazy things happening on television or in videos all the time, and it’s bizarre when you are the one seeing it and capturing it,” he said. In the police report, CruzVega described what happened from his perspective: “After I started crossing the tracks, a white pickup truck pulls up to my truck head-on and blocks me from fully crossing the railroad track. I start blowing the horn for the truck to move. The alarms start sounding and the cross arms start coming down and hit the bridge beam. I start trying to pull forward and the pickup to back up, but the train was to (sic) fast and hit the
(Top) Scattered alongside other train engines and cars, the overturned lead engine leaks diesel fuel and oil into Wolftever Creek. Tuesday, December 20, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Eric Sines) (Left) Steve Littell. Thursday, December 14, 2023. (Photo by Amanda Blake) (Right) Marc Walwyn. Thursday, December 14, 2023. (Photo by Adam De Lisser)
First responders install floating booms in Wolftever Creek to contain diesel fuel and oil pouring out of the derailed lead train engine. Tuesday, December 20, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Amy Maxwell)
beam before I got completely across the tracks. After impact I jumped out of my truck to run and check on the train engineers to see if they were okay.” Littell doesn’t think the train would have derailed had the beam never caught on the greenway walking bridge running beneath the track connecting Apison Pike to Tucker Road. “[The train] was just dragging that beam down the tracks, not even slowing down really,” he said. “But when the concrete beam got caught on the bridge that’s on Tucker Road, the train just stopped right there. That’s what derailed the train. Otherwise, it would have just kept dragging it down the rail bed.” The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that the train was led by three locomotive engines pulling 52 cars, and the concrete beam weighed 106,000 pounds and cost nearly $35,000. The total weight of the truck and its load was 185,000 pounds, according to the police report. Calling for Help “I was actually dialing 911 as the train hit,” Littell said. “I didn’t see it actually impact the beam, but I saw the big cloud of concrete dust and everything. And then the train and beam came from behind the trees.” The Accent obtained audio recordings of 911 calls made within minutes of the collision from the CPD via a public records request. “What’s the location of your emergency?” a dispatcher asked Littell when his call came through. “It is at Apison Pike and University Drive,” he responded. “A train just hit one of the members for the new bridge TDOT’s putting in. The train has derailed.” “You said it hit somebody?” a dispatcher asked twice after what seemed like a brief disconnection between the two.
“No, it hit one of the big concrete construction things. … The engine hit a concrete beam, and it is now derailed.” Littell shared his name and number. “Alrighty, thank you for calling,” the dispatcher replied. “Looks like we’re getting a lot of calls about it.” Covington called 911 seconds after coming face to face with the lead engine. “There has been a horrible accident where the train has derailed,” she exclaimed. “[I] don’t know anything other than that, other than I would be shocked if the engineer is alive. … There is train everywhere.” Another caller greeted a dispatcher with, “Hi, there was a train wreck down near the Duck Pond in Collegedale.” “Where at?” the dispatcher asked. “Uh, in Collegedale near Southern Adventist University.” The dispatcher sent the caller a link allowing her to share her live camera, and the caller apparently began shooting video. Rushing to the Scene At 12:31 p.m, Heath was in his office when he heard a call come through his radio about an accident near the train track at the Apison Pike/University Drive intersection. “The radio [call] first came across, if I recall, as just a normal crash there at the railroad intersection, which we will get different crashes in different areas, so that’s no big deal,” Heath said in an interview. “But when they came across and [initially] said ‘train versus car’ or something along those lines, I was like, ‘Ok, well, that [could] be bad.’” Anticipating the need to shut down roadways surrounding See REMEMBERS on page 4
Tracing the evolution of the railroad in Collegedale and Ooltewah Amy Mejias Reporter
Oct. 10, 1882, just one day after the opening of the Ooltewah Cutoff. “A passenger train, which should have stopped, turned the switch at Ooltewah and proceeded down the new rail line, was blinded by heavy fog, and continued straight ahead at ‘a terrific rate of speed,’ according to the Chattanooga Times story the next day,” McArthur said. “It crashed head-on into a waiting freight train.” The Chattanooga Times described the scene of the wreck: “The passenger engine was on the embankment, shorn of all its machinery, and near it lay the tender under a heap of coals, car timbers, etc. The freight engine was thrown athwart the track, and one box
car was almost totally demolished, while the remains of the baggage and express car were strewn in all directions. The telegraph office was literally demolished, and the track was torn up considerably. Two train crewmen died gruesomely in the crash; they were buried under coal that spilled out of the tender, then burned by steam that escaped from the wreck.” In addition to the deaths of the two crewmen, two children were fatally injured, according to an article published by the Granada Sentinel, dated Oct. 21, 1882. Almost exactly eight years later, an article from the Abbeville Press and Banner, dated Oct. 8, 1890, reported that a man and his son crossing the train tracks
near Ooltewah were struck by a wild engine and killed. Despite its tragic beginnings, the Ooltewah Cutoff helped its community grow. “This development played a crucial role in fostering the towns of Collegedale, Apison, Cohutta and Howardville,” said Ben Bryant, founder of the Everything Chattanooga History page on Facebook, about the railway line. McArthur said the Ooltewah Cutoff was a huge benefit to the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, as it provided a direct route between Chattanooga and Atlanta. Before the line’s construction, trains on their way to Atlanta had to
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The railroad tied 19th century America together. Trains were an essential mode of transportation, moving passengers, materials and goods across the United States, including the American South. A Tennessee railroad connecting Chattanooga to Cleveland was built in 1859, around the same time Ooltewah was founded, according to Mills McArthur, assistant professor in the History and Political Studies Department at Southern Adventist University. “By 1880, Ooltewah was a booming mining town, extracting iron ore from White Oak Mountain,” McArthur said.
According to Fairfax Harrison’s book “A History of the Legal Development of the Railroad System of Southern Railway Company,” the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad acquired the Macon and Brunswick Railroad in June 1882. That same year, the two entities incorporated the Ooltewah and Red Clay Railroad Company and constructed a new railway line, known as the Ooltewah Cutoff, connecting Ooltewah to Red Clay, Georgia, according to a Chattanoogan article. This line continues to operate in Collegedale today, running alongside Apison Pike, passing by McKee Foods Corporation and Southern’s campus and crossing Main Street. However, disaster struck on
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COLLEGEDALE NEWS SAFETY
continued from page 1 versity, a campus of nearly 3,000 students, protocols are in place to address a dangerous train incident should it happen, according to Kevin Penrod, director of Campus Safety. “Administration is aware of the possibility that a train derailment with hazardous materials could affect campus,” he said. “If such an event were to occur, we would implement Southern’s emergency response plan. The Crisis Management Team periodically runs practice scenarios to prepare for a variety of potential incidents.” In an email to the Accent, the university elaborated further, clarifying its coexistence with the railroad: “The train tracks do not cross Southern’s property; the railroad owns 50 feet on either side of the centerline of the track. The adjacent rightof-way is the City of Collegedale, not Southern. “Southern has a good working relationship with the City of Collegedale, which has the direct connection to the train company,” the statement further explained. “We are unaware of any prior derailments at that spot, though if a derailment involving hazardous materials were to happen, Southern has an emergency response plan that would go into effect.” Matt Mundall, a fire marshall at Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department, said the Collegedale train derailment was
Creek, according to a Collegedale police report on the incident. “Once we figured out what the hazards were, we were able to take appropriate steps to contain those hazards and minimize the amount of damage to the environment surrounding the accident,” Kellam said. His team has not yet made any adjustments to protocols as a result of the accident. “Our typical protocol for a train derailment does not differ much from any other scene we go to,”
“Everybody did what they were supposed to do; those emergency plans worked exactly the way they were designed.” Kellam explained. “Our main concern is life safety, followed by the safety of the environment and adjacent property.” When asked if Collegedale had safety policies related to the railroad, Sines said, “We have standard operating procedures to respond to any kind of traffic or hazardous incidents, so that would apply to the railroad. But no, there’s no specific railroad-based policy.” Garcia, the Norfolk Southern representative interviewed for this project, explained in the email to the Accent that although railroad transportation is generally safe, caution should be taken around railroad tracks. “Railroad crossings can be uniquely dangerous places, and extra care should always be used to ensure everyone’s safety,” the email stated. “You should never enter a crossing
First responders coordinate cleanup efforts on the scene of the train derailment. Firemen, police, Public Works employees and other emergency responders worked together to manage traffic and prevent environmental damage at the accident site. Tuesday, December 20, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Amy Maxwell)
minor compared to others like the derailment in East Palestine. He said the Dec. 20 derailment was the first to happen in Collegedale in some time. Patrick Kellam, captain of the Hamilton County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said it was his first derailment since joining the department in 2000. “We do not have a protocol specific to train derailment, though we do have protocols for major incidents including large motor vehicles and hazardous materials,” Mundall said. The fire department does try to plan ahead for each incident they may need to respond to, he explained, but it can be difficult when they do not always know what to expect. “Our members do receive routine training on hazardous materials responses, and those incidents might happen day or night,” Mundall said, “during all types of weather and involve any type of vehicle or structure.” Emergency Response Guide Amy Maxwell, public relations and crisis communications manager for Hamilton County Emergency Management, said one of the Norfolk Southern engineers gave a book to the first responders on the scene following the Dec. 20 incident. The book, called the Emergency Response Guide (ERG), has every chemical from the train listed on it, so the first responders know what to do in the case of a spill. As a result of the Collegedale derailment, 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the Wolftever
railroad negatively affects the safety of the city. He said the truck driver involved in the Dec. 20 derailment, whom police have identified as Jorge Luis Cruz-Vega, and those assisting him should not have put themselves in the situation they did at the crossing. “The truck driver did not do what he was supposed to do,” Sines said. “The … pilot company that they were using did not do what they were supposed to do.”
before you are sure you can get all the way through safely, whether on foot or in the car. While we encourage all drivers to use caution when crossing tracks, professional drivers and operators of large vehicles are subject to specific rules when it comes to approaching tracks.” Driving Safety Measures The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has guidelines for drivers of commercial vehicles at railroad crossings. The FMCSA website states that “drivers subject to the Department of Transportation’s commercial vehicle safety rules” are prohibited from “entering a highway-rail grade crossing unless there is enough space to drive completely through the crossing without stopping.” In an interview with the Accent, Sines said there is always the risk of something going wrong at at-grade crossings, but he doesn’t think the
As a class-A CDL driver, Sines said he is personally aware of what’s required. “ ... It's ingrained into you in the tests that you take and the literature that you read,” he said. “ ... [The driver] panicked and did not do what he was supposed to do when his training should have kicked in and told him. It should never have happened, but it did.” Sines stressed the need for communication between trucking and railroad companies. “They should have had a pilot car in communications with the railroad [to] make sure there’s no train in route,” he said. “[There is a] whole gamut of things that didn’t happen, and that’s not surprising. Depending on who you’re dealing with, that trucking company may not have even known they were going across a railroad crossing.” According to a witness statement in the Collegedale Police Department crash report from Roger Lewis, who was one of the drivers escorting the truck and trailer, there was no contact with Norfolk Southern before the delivery. Sines said Wright Brothers Construction Co. did not know that the concrete beam was being delivered that day. Sines said Wright Brothers Construction Co. probably did not contract the trucking company [Starrette Houston] because that is typically handled by the manufacturer of the beam. “It’s solely on the transportation company of that beam,” Lamar Rains, Collegedale Public Works safety director said. “The driver in the front, the driver in the back — [they] should have held off the track. They should have never crossed that with the amount of traffic that was heading between the red light and track. They should have never pulled him [Cruz-Vega] across that track.” In the aftermath of the derailment, police charged Cruz-Vega, a resident of Martinez, Ga., with failure to yield, reckless endangerment and vandalism of critical infrastructure, according to a Collegedale Police crash report. In a recent interview, Assistant Police Chief Jamie Heath said the case includes a plea agreement, which involves Cruz-Vega possibly losing his commercial driver’s license. A legal review of the case is scheduled for January. Despite repeated efforts by the Accent, neither Cruz-Vega nor representatives from Starrette Houston or Wright Broth-
ers Construction Co. could be reached for comment. Ongoing Safety Concerns According to Heath, a major rail accident with hazardous materials is a persistent concern among community leaders and first responders. “You always want to be prepared for that kind of thing, and I feel like we were as far as the Hamilton County team responding to something like that,” he said, referring to how first responders handled the Dec. 20 crash and derailment in Collegedale. “Everybody did what they were supposed to do; those emergency plans worked exactly the way they were designed. So it definitely is a concern, but that's why we have those plans in place.” When asked whether local authorities are aware of the types of material being transported through Collegedale,
he said the railroad is federally regulated, and local authorities aren’t always kept in the loop due to politics and other issues. “Would I like to know what's coming through? Absolutely,” Heath said. “But when you start getting government agencies talking to government agencies and the bureaucracy and everything, red tape starts slowing things down. “I just wish it would be as simple as a phone call, you know, ‘Hey, we're bringing nuclear waste through your area, just wanted to let you know,’” he added. “But how many phone calls would that be? How many emails would that be? I mean, those rail lines go through states and towns and cities and counties. And I don't know what the logistics of something like that would look like.”
Federal government prioritizes rail safety in wake of recent Norfolk Southern derailments The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) conducted a safety assessment of Norfolk Southern in the spring, following several derailments involving the company’s trains, railroad tracks and the death of a Norfolk Southern employee. The assessment focused on Norfolk Southern’s safety culture and training, as well as compliance with previous safety recommendations FRA made after conducting a 2022 system-wide special audit of the railroad company, according to the results published in August. The purpose of the assessment was to investigate aspects of Norfolk Southern’s operations that affect safety but are not necessarily addressed by regulations. The FRA found that Norfolk Southern’s rate of accidents per million train miles rose faster than that of any other Class I railroad between 2018 and 2022. While acknowledging company efforts to follow the federal agency’s most recent safety recommendations, regulators concluded that “there are still areas where [Norfolk Southern] continues to use minimum standards set by regulations as a benchmark for efficacy.” Norfolk Southern responded to the FRA’s assessment by pledging to take action based on its results, according to an article by Railway Age. “We are a safe railroad driven to become even safer,” said Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan H. Shaw, as quoted in the article. “To learn, we have to listen.” Norfolk Southern leaders met with FRA Administrator Amit Bose on Aug. 8 to discuss the assessment, the article stated. “I gave Administrator Bose my personal commitment that we are going to use this assessment to take further action,” Shaw is quoted as saying. “We aren’t waiting. As an immediate first step, we delivered the report to Atkins Nuclear Secured, the consultant conducting an independent review of our safety program. We’ll continue making progress on our six-point safety plan. We’re also actively collaborating with labor on safety and we’re engaging with them on next steps to address the report’s findings.” In addition to safety investigations, the impact of the East Palestine derailment and others across the country prompted the introduction of the Railway Safety Act of 2023, which imposed additional safety regulations on trains carrying hazardous materials and raised the maximum fine for violating rail safety laws from $100,000 to $10 million, according to a Senate press release. President Joe Biden released a statement in support of the bill on March 2, stating: “I applaud the bipartisan group of senators for proposing rail safety legislation that provides many of the solutions that my administration has been calling for. This legislation provides us with tools to hold companies accountable to prevent terrible tragedies like the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine and to make those communities whole.” In September, the FRA awarded the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) a $23.7 million Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement (CRISI) Grant for repairing railroad bridges in 12 different Tennessee counties. However, Hamilton County is not included in the funding.
A train prepares to cross over a Wolftever Creek Greenway underpass. When a train derailed one year ago above the underpass, it blocked pedestrian access between Tucker Road and the campus of Southern Adventist University. Thursday, December 14, 2023. (Photo by Amanda Blake)
If you would like to be a contributor, contact Amanda Blake at ablake@southern.edu
4 | Wednesday, December 20, 2023
COLLEGEDALE NEWS EVOLUTION
continued from page 2 detour through Cleveland and Ooltewah. Moreover, the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad also utilized the Ooltewah Cutoff to create a more efficient route to the seaside Port of Brunswick in Georgia, according to Bryant. In 1884, a lien was placed on several railroad lines, including the Ooltewah Cutoff, and it was brought under the jurisdiction of the Southern Railway Company, according to Harrison’s book. In the early 20th century, the area surrounding the Ooltewah Cutoff came to be known as Thatcher Switch. McArthur, who is currently writing a book on the history of the Ooltewah-Collegedale area, said Thatcher
REMEMBERS
continued from page 2 the accident, Heath got into his vehicle and drove toward the scene of the derailment. “[I] didn’t realize the scope of what it was until I topped that hill and was coming down into the valley there and saw the carnage that it was,” he said. “It was insane.” According to Heath, the Collegedale Police Department was the first governmental agency on the scene of the derailment, but they were not the first responders. “Actually, if I recall, there were McKee workers that were first on the scene and were getting into the rail cars and helping the railroad workers out at great risk to themselves,” he said. Heath remembers overturned train engines and cars bending
Switch, also known as Thatcher, included farmland owned by James D. Thatcher; a limestone quarry, now the Goliath Wall on the university’s campus; housing for the quarry workers; a store and a flag stop station along the railroad. The Thatcher Switch stop included a sidetrack, where train cars were loaded with limestone, according to the Chattanoogan article. The station stood on the eastern side of McDaniel Gap between the track and Apison Pike and across from the end of Sanborn Drive. In 1910, improvements were made to a railway junction located in Ooltewah, near the current Jac Cate Road, Bryant said. Changes included a new depot and water tower that stands in its original location today. At this junction, the train tracks split, allowing trains
from Chattanooga to travel to either Knoxville or Atlanta, Bryant added. The railway running through Ooltewah and Thatcher soon attracted the attention of a nearby Seventh-day Adventist school. “In 1916, when Southern Training School was contemplating moving out of Graysville, Tennessee, school officials wanted a remote location with good rail access. This made the Thatcher farm an attractive option,” McArthur said. “However, some opposed the move from Graysville to Collegedale. School officials planned to use the Thatcher farmhouse as a temporary girls dorm; at least one pro-Graysville individual said this was dangerous because the farmhouse was so close to the railroad tracks.” In October 1916, the newly
the overturned lead engine. “Your immediate reaction from being a human being is to go, ‘Ok, how am I going to help these people?’” Covington said. “ … I thought, ‘Am I gonna have to do CPR on somebody? Am I gonna have to try to get them out before something explodes?’ I mean, you know, you start to face your own mortality.” Relief washed over her when the two men walked away from the wreckage. She hugged them both. Not long after the engineers exited safely from the engine, Emergency Medical Services arrived, according to both Covington and Littell. “[McKee] then actually designated me as the main contact for the railroad, TDOT, and everyone that was involved in that accident for the duration of it,” Littell said. Public Works Director Eric Sines was driving home for
near the water could smell the running diesel, Covington said. Eventually, instructed by the conductor, the engineer shut the engine down, according to the Fox17 article. After witnessing the scale of the accident, the Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department contacted the Hamilton County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security. Amy Maxwell, the agency’s public relations and crisis communications manager, was in her office when she received the call. “When I got onto the scene, I was so overwhelmed with what I saw,” she said. Debris was everywhere. At the time, she was certain someone was severely injured. However, the conductor and engineer only sustained minor injuries. First responders transported them to local hospitals. Maxwell said several mutual-aid companies arrived on scene within 25 minutes of the fire department’s call. Alongside the Collegedale police and fire department, the Hamilton County Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) team and Chattanooga Fire Department worked to secure clean-up for the area, Maxwell stated. Southern Adventist University’s Campus Safety department also worked with first responders to collect information and help regulate traffic, according to Janell Hullquist, director of Marketing and University Relations.
(Left) James Templeton. Thursday, December 14, 2023. (Photo by Adam De Lisser) (Right) Kelly Covington. (Photo courtesy of source)
the rails lining the track. “It would just take for them to snap, and that iron rail snapping back like a rubber band is not gonna cause great things to happen,” he said. Looking for the Crew Littell, who once worked for the Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department and served as a Collegedale police officer for a year in the 1980s, was concerned that the train engineers were hurt badly by concrete debris or the engine falling on its side. He drove down Hickman Drive after contacting the police and parked in the McKee Employee Services Center parking lot. He arrived at the scene within minutes of the crash and checked to see if the engineers were okay. “ ... I climbed up on the engine, and about the time I was looking down in the engine, somebody yelled that [the engineers] were on the other side of the tracks in the grass,” he recalled. “One guy was walking around and the other guy, his hip was hurting him.” Covington was still on the phone with her dispatcher when she saw the two men exit the engine. “Were ya’ll on that?” she asked in disbelief. Covington said witnessing the train derail was the most shocking moment of her life. Adrenaline running high, she felt as if she were watching a slow-motion scene on television, even as her instincts drew her toward
lunch, about to turn onto Apison Pike from Sanborn Drive, when he saw a large dust cloud above the track. “My first thought was, ‘Why is TDOT out here cutting the road at 12:30 in the afternoon?’” he said. “And then I get closer, and I go, ‘Oh no, that’s a dust cloud because it has derailed, and that’s just the dust from all the rock that got blown out from the derailing.” Sines turned his vehicle’s emergency lights on and drove closer to the scene. By the time he arrived, the engineers had exited the lead engine. “The engine was still sitting there running, wide open,” he said. “Didn’t shut off. It was just dumping diesel fuel and oil into the ground and the creek.” Sines called his foreman and requested that he start regulating traffic. Police body-cam footage published by Fox17 shows police officers asking the locomotive engineer to turn off the engine. “I wouldn’t know how to do that,” he responded. “I’m still fairly new.” Walwyn said several drivers got out of their cars and ran toward the wreckage to try and help those involved, while others just took photos. Assessing the Damage The body-cam footage shows several police officers interacting with witnesses and firefighters. Emergency vehicles line Apison Pike and Tucker Road. The live engine hisses. Those
Cleaning Up the Mess Matt Mundall, fire marshall for the Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department, said cleanup crews were able to contain all diesel fuel and oil coming from the locomotives within the first hour following the derailment. At the same time, Norfolk Southern workers removed contaminated dirt and leveled the ground in order to replace the broken track, he added. Railroad company officials investigating the incident said first responders handled the situation exactly as they should have, according to Mundall. “Had this happened before the schools went on Christmas break, or had there been a large hazardous material leak, the response and hazard to the community would have been much worse,” he added. In the aftermath of the derailment, Walwyn’s video of the collision began circulating online and was posted by various large
A water tower stands near the railroad tracks adjacent to Jac Cate Rd in Ooltewah. The tower was constructed next to a railroad junction in 1910. (Photo courtesy of Ben Bryant)
titled Southern Junior College opened its doors to 57 students in Thatcher Switch, which the school renamed Collegedale, according to the university’s website. The Ooltewah Cutoff remained under the Southern Railway Company until 1982, when the
company was merged with the Norfolk and Western Railway, forming the Norfolk Southern Corporation, according to the Southern Railway Historical Association website. Norfolk Southern continues to operate the Collegedale railway line today.
market television stations, like KTLA in Los Angeles, SKY News in London and NBC News. He sold video rights to a couple of news companies, such as Storyful, which shared it with even more outlets. Collegedale Mayor Morty Lloyd, who had been sworn into office just two weeks prior, was in a state of total shock watching Walwyn’s video online while visiting friends in Apison. A couple hours after the accident, he met Norfolk Southern rep-
as quickly as they could,” Littell said. “They kind of just put stuff wherever they could. They would block the main road that all of [McKee’s] trucks would use in and out of Collegedale. …We were very concerned about on-time delivery for our products.” However, by working closely with TDOT and Norfolk Southern, McKee was allowed to access one lane of Apison Pike, which was opened solely for the corporation’s trucks, according to Littell.
“Your immediate reaction from being a human being is to go, ‘Ok, how am I going to help these people?’” resentative John “Ben” Carden on the scene. Carden and other railroad officials brought Lloyd up to speed, transforming his shock into a mixture of relief and worry. “I was greatly relieved that there were no fatalities, and no railcars with toxic chemicals were involved,” Lloyd wrote in an email to the Accent. “However, I was deeply concerned about the amount of diesel fuel that was leaking into Wolftever Creek. [The officials] assured me that they were doing everything possible to prevent environmental harm.” As reported in a previous Accent article, Marion Environmental performed remediation after the derailment, and Collegedale has not seen any adverse effects to its environment caused by the spillage, according to Sines. Getting Back on Track Norfolk Southern worked through the night to fix the train track, while McKee employees took coffee and Little Debbie snacks to the site, hoping to lift spirits and warm those working in the cold, according to Littell. After the derailment, McKee notified its employees via text message about road closures so they knew how to travel to and from work, he said. Within 24 hours of the derailment, the company was expecting about 170 trucks in and out of its facilities. Having roadways blocked adjacent to its warehouse meant potential delays in deliveries that could disrupt the company’s distribution chain and cause problems for wholesalers who deliver products to stores. “The derailment crew’s main goal was to get that track open
Like Mckee, Norfolk Southern was also eager to resume business operations. According to Sines, the railway running through Collegedale is a main north-south line connecting Knoxville and Atlanta. Littell said, according to the Hamilton County Emergency Operation Center (EOC), Norfolk Southern loses $1 million each hour the railway is down. Kellam said Norfolk Southern had its response team on the scene to assess damage and bring equipment before the fire department had completed its responsibilities. “The environmental impacts were managed very quickly, though, and the rail was replaced overnight,” Kellam said. “There were trains moving down that track again within the first 15 hours, which is quite an impressive feat by the railroad.” Ingrid Skantz, vice president for Marketing and University Relations at Southern Adventist University, said administrators are thankful that the derailment had minimal impact on the university, “only causing some traffic disruptions following the event.” “A text alert message went out to campus making people aware of the situation and asking them to stay clear of the area, with a follow-up email to Southern employees providing more details,” Hullquist wrote in a statement to the Accent. “If classes had been in session when this particular derailment happened, this would have been the same impact and response (with the addition of students also receiving the email).”
Engines and cars overturned above Wolftever Creek Greenway, bending the track and leaking diesel fuel. Although a police report stated 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel were released into the water, the city has seen no adverse effects. Tuesday, December 20, 2023. (Photos courtesy of Eric Sines)