UPDATED: CSX train collides with recycling truck in southern Whitley

Jay Meadors feels lucky to be alive after his tractor-trailer, which was loaded with crushed cars, was totaled when it collided with a CSX locomotive Friday morning in southern Whitley County.

When his semi got hung up at the Sandy Flats crossing near Ky. 1804 about 7:30 a.m., Meadors remembers thinking two words, only one of which can be repeated in the newspaper.

"That’s my honest opinion," he said laughing a few hours after the crash. "I was lucky, but I can’t say that for the truck."
He worked to get the truck off the tracks for nearly two minutes until the train-crossing signal started going off.
Then he ran.

"I got out of the way. I knew there wasn’t anything I could do," he said.

The incident ranked about a nine his the fear meter.

The subsequent crash made a pretty loud boom, which was loud enough to awaken Mike Lay, who lives about 100 feet from the crossing and crash scene.

"It woke us up out of bed with the vibration from a dead sleep," he said. "It sounded just like the Fourth of July, just boom! We thought he train derailed or something."

Lay, who has lived there all his life, said that he had never seen anything like this before.

Meadors said that this was the first time his truck had ever gotten hung up at the train crossing.

Leach’s Recycling Center Owner Jerry Leach said that his company has been using the crossing to avoid the underpass for over 25 years and nothing like this had ever happened before.

Leach said he can remember only one accident at the crossing and that was when a car got hit there in the 1970s.

"We never had any problem at all until this morning," Leach said, adding that he is most thankful that no one got hurt. "If they don’t fix this here, we will have to find another route.

"The trucks that can’t come under the under pass have to come that way to get over to Jones Market. They bring house trailers across there too."

Whitley County Emergency Management Director Danny Moses said that evidently new blacktop had been laid at the crossing, which caused the vehicle to get hung up there.

The impact of the crash ruptured the fuel tank on the locomotive. An undetermined amount of diesel fuel leaked into a nearby stream, Moses said.

"We have it padded and dammed up. We also have the leak stopped at this time and D&D Recovery here along with another recovery system, which will pump the tank dry," Moses said.

"We’re trying to keep it from going into the Clearfork River."

When the train collided with the trailer, it knocked one of the squashed junked cars off the vehicle.

"When I got on scene, I thought that we had another accident," said Moses, who was the first emergency responded to arrive at the accident scene.

"Lucky no one was hurt and no other vehicles were involved besides the train and the tractor trailer."

The crash totaled the tractor-trailer and caused significant damage to the train, which had various components knocked off in addition to the ruptured fuel tank, Moses noted.

Emergency officials were on the scene for hours cleaning up the debris and spilled diesel fuel.

Whitley County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Miller investigated the accident and was assisted at the scene by Lt. David Lennon.

CSX officials also responded to the accident scene as well as the Kentucky Fire Marshal’s Office and the Kentucky Environmental Protection Agency.

Other agencies assisting at the scene included: Whitley County Emergency Management, South Whitley Volunteer Fire Department and the Jellico Rescue Squad.