Norfolk Southern train derails in Virginia, no injuries

[July 15, 2014]  (Reuters) - A Norfolk Southern Corp train hauling vehicles and nail polish derailed on Monday evening in southwestern Virginia, though there were no injuries or hazardous material spilled, county and company officials said.

The 33-car freight train with three locomotives went off its tracks at about 6:15 p.m. local time in the town of Wytheville, about 250 miles west of Richmond, said Norfolk Southern spokesman Robin Chapman.

About 12 autorack and two double-stacked container cars derailed, Chapman said. The train was headed to Norfolk, Virginia, from Louisville, Kentucky.

An image showed yellow and white rail cars lying on their sides at various angles along a slightly elevated track hill with an ambulance and emergency worker nearby.

Wythe County spokesman Jeremy T.K. Farley said about 14 cars, some of which were carrying nail polish, "began to derail" inside the town of roughly 8,000 residents near where the rails intersect a main road, which was been closed.

The cause of the crash was to be investigated by officials from the National Transportation Safety Board and Norfolk Southern was leading the clean up efforts, Farley said.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

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