Runaway Train Hits Building; 9 Hurt -- Authorities Suspect Sabotage; FBI Called

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A runaway freight train traveling up to 50 mph slammed into a railroad office building, injuring nine men. Authorities said today sabotage was suspected.

"There appears to have been some tampering with the train. As a result we have called in the FBI," said Dick Russack, a spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe in Illinois. He declined to elaborate on why sabotage was suspected.

The Burlington Northern train, carrying lumber, grain and other cargo, originated in Minneapolis and was bound for Galesburg, Ill., when its brakes failed just before midnight last night, said Rick Ellis, a BN division superintendent. It was approaching the freight yard of Canadian Pacific Railroad.

Pinned down for 3 hours

One of the injured men was pinned for three hours beneath a car holding 15 tons of grain. He was freed after rescuers dug into the frozen ground to jack up the car.

He was upgraded from critical to fair condition today, suffering from hypothermia. Wind chills had been below zero as rescuers worked to free him from the wreckage.

None of the other injuries, mostly fractures and sprains, appeared to be life-threatening, authorities said. Five men were treated and released.

FBI agents were examining the wreckage today, Russack said.

"Clearly it appears the brakes failed, but in an investigation one has to look at everything," he said.

44 cars derailed

Canadian Pacific officials said 44 rail cars and six locomotives derailed, including cars and engines that were derailed by the oncoming train.

Cars were twisted in every direction, some upside down, some on top of each other. The impact knocked the rails off their bed and wiped out a pedestrian bridge over the train yard.

Big sheets of plywood spilled out of railway cars like decks of cards, and grain poured onto the frozen gravel beneath the wreckage. Crews were siphoning diesel fuel out of the tanks and off the ground.

"It's amazing there was not any explosion and fire. That's a miracle," said Mike McDonough, a Canadian Pacific electrician.

The train, with two locomotives and 89 cars, hit some of the six CP locomotives parked outside the CP office building in the freight yard in southeast St. Paul. Then dozens of cars from the BN train derailed, some slamming into the building.

Ellis said he could not estimate how fast the train was going but that the average speed in the area was 35 mph. St. Paul Fire Chief Tim Fuller estimated the train was traveling between 40 and 50 mph.