White Pass and Yukon Route - Accidents

Accidents

In 1951, engine No. 70 caught a guardrail with its snowplow and rolled over on its side. The locomotive is still in operation at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

In 1994, during rock removal operations, a backhoe operator accidentally struck a petroleum pipeline near the railroad tracks. The operator’s mistake caused the pipeline to rupture and spill between 1,000 and 5,000 US gallons (830 and 4,200 imp gal; 3,800 and 19,000 L) of heating oil into the Skagway river. Roadmaster Edward Hanousek, Jr. and President Paul Taylor were later both convicted of violating the Clean Water Act and lying to investigators as a result of the accident.

A serious derailment on 3 September 2006 resulted in the death of one section worker. A work train, Engine 114 pulling eight gravel cars, derailed approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Bennett, injuring all four train crew, two Canadian and two American; one died at the scene and the others had to be airlifted to a hospital. Passenger operations on the blocked section had ended for the season just before the accident. In February 2007, Engine 114 was taken for repair to the Coast Engine and Equipment Company (CEECO) in Tacoma, Washington.

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Famous quotes containing the word accidents:

    Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of.
    François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)

    I can forgive even that wrong of wrongs,
    Those undreamt accidents that have made me
    Seeing that Fame has perished this long while,
    Being but a part of ancient ceremony
    Notorious, till all my priceless things
    Are but a post the passing dogs defile.
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    The day-laborer is reckoned as standing at the foot of the social scale, yet he is saturated with the laws of the world. His measures are the hours; morning and night, solstice and equinox, geometry, astronomy, and all the lovely accidents of nature play through his mind.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)