7 injured in Mo. train collision, overpass collapse

Katharine Lackey | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Raw: Train collision causes overpass collapse The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a cargo train collision in southeast Missouri. Authorities say a highway overpass collapsed early today when rail cars slammed into one of the bridge's pillars after the collision. (May 25)

One train was hauling auto parts%2C the other scrap metal

More than a dozen train cars derailed in the accident

The crash also ignited a fire%2C which was quickly extinguished

Seven people were injured early Saturday morning in southeastern Missouri after two freight trains collided, taking out a nearby overpass.

A Union Pacific train hit a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train at a railroad intersection near Chaffee, Mo., Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter told KFVS-TV. The collision, which occurred around 2:30 a.m., caused the trains to derail and hit a pillar under the overpass, collapsing it.

There were no cars on the overpass when it collapsed, but Trooper Clark Parrott of the Missouri Highway Patrol said two vehicles crashed after coming upon the bridge after it had fallen.

Five people from those cars were taken to the hospital with arm and ankle fractures. A train conductor and locomotive engineer on the Union Pacific train were also injured.

One of the drivers, Christopher Cantrell, 22, said he didn't see the bridge had collapsed until it was too late.

All seven of the victims were treated and released by Saturday afternoon, Saint Francis Medical Center spokeswoman Felecia Blanton told the Associated Press.

Blanton said when she heard about the crash, she immediately went online and saw video footage of the scene and was bracing for the worst. She said it was "a real blessing" that the injuries were relatively minor, the most serious being a fracture.

"If you look at the pictures, they're very dramatic, and there are no serious injuries," she said. "So it's amazing."

Wayne Woods, a bystander who rushed to the scene of the crash, said, "I heard the crash and stepped outside, and my son said the overpass was down. Then we heard car's tires squealing like it was coming to a stop and a crash, and a horn continuously blowing ... When I got over there, the train was on its side."

At least a dozen Union Pacific train cars and a dozen Burlington Northern cars derailed in the accident.

The Union Pacific train was hauling auto parts from Salem, Ill., to Arlington, Texas, according to Union Pacific spokewoman Calli Hite. The Burlington Northern train was hauling scrap metal, BNSF spokesman Andy Williams said.

The crash also ignited a fire that crews were able to extinguish quickly. The National Transportation Safety Board has been dispatched a team to investigate the incident.

The collision comes just two days after a span of an Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River in Washington collapsed — caused when an oversized truck hit an overhead girder — and just over a week after a commuter train derailed in Bridgeport, Conn., suspending rail service along the heavily traveled New York-Boston corridor.

Contributing: The Associated Press