See Video From The Freight Train Derailment In Vado
On top of all the human "train wrecks" we all deal with every day, folks in the area near Vado are now dealing with the after-effects of a real one.
A Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway train derailed at around 5 a.m. this morning near Vado, a little south of Las Cruces.
Cleanup of the area is expected to take weeks and the roadway near the accident site will remain closed until noon tomorrow, December 3rd, at the earliest.
According to our news partners at KVIA, the train derailed after it hit a couple of railroad ties that had been left on the tracks. There is no official word on exactly how the ties got onto the railroad tracks but, between you and me, it does not exactly look like they got there by accident.
Around a dozen cars left the train tracks making not only a huge mess but also spilling thousands of gallons of diesel.
You can see the accident site and its aftermath in the video below from the ground and in the upper video from above.
The cost of all the damage is in the millions and that probably is not taking into account other costs racked up by closures throughout the area, while the cleanup takes place.
At today's prices, a great deal of that money was probably all the lost diesel fuel.
Luckily, only two people were hurt in the train derailment and both were hospitalized.