The Meldrim trestle disaster occurred at Meldrim, Georgia, on June 28, 1959. Involved was a Seaboard Air Line mixed freight train that derailed over the Ogeechee River. Loaded LPGtank cars from the train plunged into the river below and ruptured. The resulting explosion and fire killed 23 people--including entire families and a woman who was eight months pregnant--who were at the river that day as it was a popular area to swim and picnic at.[1][2]
The derailment was caused by the movement of rails on the trestle due to heat-related expansion, resulting in wheels of one car dropping between the rails.[1]
An ICC investigation faulted the railroad for not installing guard rails along the trestle, which might have helped to keep the derailed equipment on the trestle deck, minimizing the risk of a hazardous materials release.[1]
Derailment
Eastbound Train No. 82 departed Americus, Georgia at 7 am. After stopping in Vidalia and Collins, it headed toward Savannah. While crossing the Ogeechee River at roughly 3:40 PM, seventeen cars derailed after one of the cars slipped between the rails. Ten of these cars broke free of the bridge, and were scattered into the river and onto the river bank. Seventy-five feet of the bridge was destroyed by the initial derailment.[1]
Fire & Explosion
Two of the cars that fell off the bridge were 11,000 gallon LPG cars. The fall from the bridge drove the coupler of one of the LPG cars into the tank head of the other. The LPG then began to spontaneously boil and escape into the surrounding atmosphere. At some point afterward, the LPG was ignited from an unknown source. The resulting flash fire was roughly 1000 feet wide, and started secondary fires. The fires destroyed another 110 feet of the bridge, and damaging another 300 feet.
