Train derails in Milton

A CSX freight train derailed near Avalon Beach in Santa Rosa County Saturday morning, spilling thousands of gallons of petroleum.

Neither the engineer nor the conductor - the only people onboard - was injured.

The 46-car train bound for Waycross, Ga., from New Orleans derailed at 6:21 a.m. west of Avalon Boulevard near Avalon Middle School. All six locomotives and 13 cars jumped the tracks.

It was unclear how many gallons of petroleum oil were spilled. Joy Tsubooka, a spokeswoman for Santa Rosa County said, "23,000 gallons of non-hazardous petroleum oil" were spilled.

Sease said CSX will clean up the site.

"If it's just petroleum, I'm not concerned about it. It just leaches into the ground," said Walter Schummer of Silver Star Court near the derailment site. "I know it's an environmental hazard. But I'm not worried about fumes in the air."

Several of Schummer's neighbors contacted Saturday afternoon said they slept through the accident.

Sease said CSX workers put down booms to contain the spill.

"We've got that spill contained at this time and we will be working over the next few days to clean that up thoroughly," he said during a telephone interview.

The train carried a variety of other products, including food and wine. No other hazardous materials were spilled.

"One of the cars at the front of the train had carbon dioxide on it," said Tsubooka. "But it was part of the train that was still on the tracks."

"The track was damaged and we'll be repairing and replacing that during the night," said Sease. "There's a good chance we'll have a lot of progress with the cleanup by tomorrow, including the track repairs."

The track is used by 15 to 22 trains a day and is inspected about twice a week, said Sease. If necessary, trains will be rerouted.

"But we're also able to hold some trains until the tracks are repaired," he added.

The cause of the wreck was unknown Saturday.

"It's under investigation, so we don't know exactly what happened at this point. We have to look at a lot of different factors," Sease said.

CSX officials will investigate the accident and report the results to the Federal Railroad Administration. Sease was not sure how long that would take.

The train had an event recorder, similar to a black box on an aircraft that will help investigators determine what happened.

"We haven't downloaded that yet. Or if we have, I don't have the data available," Sease said.