CHAFFEE, Mo. — The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation into the cause of a cargo train collision that partially collapsed a highway overpass in southeast Missouri, injuring seven people.
The collision occurred about 2:30 a.m. Saturday when a Union Pacific train hit a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train at a rail intersection under a highway near Chaffee, a town of about 3,000 southwest of Cape Girardeau.
Scott County Sheriff's Office Dispatcher Clay Slipis said several cars derailed and hit a pillar of the Highway M overpass, bringing it partially down. Two cars were on the overpass when it fell. The highway was shut down for about 8 miles from Scott City to Chaffee.
Seven people — five in the vehicles and a UP train conductor and engineer — were taken to Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. All seven had been treated and released by early afternoon, hospital spokeswoman Felecia Blanton said.
A diesel fire that broke out after the collision was quickly extinguished, Slipis said.
Union Pacific spokeswoman Calli Hite said the 60-car UP train was carrying primarily automobiles or auto parts from Illinois to Texas. She said about a dozen UP railcars derailed.
Hite said the NTSB will determine what caused the accident, and that there was no immediate estimate on the amount of damage to the roadway or the rail cars.