Train derails in Boundary County

(Courtesy photo) A BNSF Railway train is buffeted by the Kootenai River after derailing late Wednesday night.

BONNERS FERRY — The crew of a BNSF train which derailed Wednesday night ended up in the river and possibly trapped for a period of time.

After the derailment, the Boundary County Sheriff’s Office advised 9:29 p.m. that its crews were involved in unspecified police activity in the area of Katka Road and Toboggan Lane. According to scanner traffic, that incident was a train derailment in the Ridge Road area about 6 miles from the Crossport area east of Twin Rivers.

The derailment sent at least one car of the 113-car train into the water with the crew temporarily trapped. However, by 10 p.m. reports had two of the train crew sitting on the top of the truck and all crew members out of the train. Reports also indicate the train sinking on the front end but the train’s seven haz-mat cars — six of which were loaded ­ — were reported to not be in the river and were instead on the riverbank.

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Train derails in boundary county, Bonner County Daily Bee