By Max Smith, WTOP; June 11, 2018
WASHINGTON — Last month’s CSX derailment, which sent freight cars plunging off a bridge in Alexandria onto another track, appears to have been caused by heavy rains washing out the rocks supporting the track, a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report suggests.
An overhead drone photograph shows what looks like a sinkhole under the side of the concrete ties holding one of the rails at the spot where most of the 31 derailed cars left the tracks, matching what the train crew had described in initial interviews as a “spongy” condition.
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