The locomotive of a cargo train derailed in northern Colorado early Wednesday, spilling hundreds of gallons of diesel, authorities said.
The Great Western Railway locomotive did not tip over when it went off the rails at a switch in the tracks just before 1 a.m. but a fuel tank was punctured, the Loveland Fire Rescue Authority said in a Facebook post. The spill was contained and did not get into any waterways, it said.
No one was injured in the derailment, which happened near a sugar factory in an area not far from some homes, Battalion Chief Kevin Hessler said. The other locomotive and three cars carrying sugar did not derail, he said.
Sure, there’s damage, but the train didn’t crash into anything. If I drove into the shoulder of the road and ran over a piece of debris, I could easily damage my car, but I didn’t crash the car.
There’s not really anything subjective here, the train didn’t crash into anything. It derailed and suffered damage.
See that’s technically a crash. You collided with the curb. It might not be a crash into another vehicle or into something like a tree or a lamppost, but you’re still crashing into something.
In this case, the train collided with the ground, after falling off the rails. A low speed derailment would have no damage - akin to spinning out in an open road or something - but if you hit something and cause damage that breaches some threshold.
Roads with shoulders don’t typically have curbs.
Driving over the lane lines does not involve hitting a curb. As I said, in this hypothetical scenario I drove into the shoulder and debris damaged my car. I did not crash.
There’s nothing subjective about this incident. The train derailed. The train remained upright. The train did not collide with an object. The train was damaged. Honestly, you’re really doing some mental gymnastics to rationalize your decision to call it a collision. If you’re just going to do whatever you need to do to convince yourself that it was a collision, nothing I’m going to say will change your mind.