http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/garland/stories/DN-der
ailed_02met.ART.North.Edition1.4519eb0.html
 

Railroad tampering suspected in Garland train derailment


Garland: Police on lookout after minor derailment in October 



12:00 AM CST on Saturday, February 2, 2008


By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 

Local authorities are warning officers to be on the lookout after a minor
train derailment in Garland was believed to have been caused by someone
tampering with the track.

The October incident on a Kansas City Southern line is being investigated by
the federal joint terrorism task force. 

"It could have been very serious," said Officer Joe Harn, a Garland police
spokesman. "Does it tie in to any terrorist group or something? Right now,
we simply don't know. Is the possibility there? Certainly it is."

The Garland derailment, which caused about $5,000 in damage, happened about
the same time as two other incidents of railroad tampering in Chicago and
Los Angeles that could have caused a derailment, according to a confidential
law enforcement bulletin.

There have been prior incidents in which tampering with a rail line has had
devastating consequences. In 1995, a passenger train derailed and plunged
into a dry riverbed in Arizona after someone sabotaged part of the track.
One person was killed and 65 others were injured. 

In the Garland incident, somebody laid railroad spikes against a switch in
an apparent effort to cause a derailment, authorities said. One train came
through and forced the spikes down, causing the switch to shift slightly.
That caused the next train that came through to derail, police said. 

"It did not fall off the tracks and went for something like three-quarters
of a mile before it got to another switching area and the train was back on
the tracks," Officer Harn said. 

The Chicago incident occurred in September when someone removed rail spikes
from ties on one side of the track on the approach to an overpass above a
highway. The removal of the spikes "left the rail unsecured and vulnerable
to shifting that could have caused a train to derail," the bulletin said. 

Authorities found a tool designed for track maintenance not far from where
the spikes had been removed, the bulletin said.

The next month, someone removed clips used to secure cross ties from a
curved section of elevated track on a commuter rail line north of downtown
Los Angeles. 

In the Los Angeles and Chicago incidents, the clips and spikes that had been
removed were found in the area, the bulletin said. The bulletin said that
authorities had not found any evidence of terrorist links to the two
incidents. 

Rebecca Lopez of WFAA-TV (Channel 8) contributed to this report.



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