By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — At approximately 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, the Greenville City Police and Fire Departments received a call that an RJ Corman train had derailed near the intersection of State Route 571 and Wayne Street. The derailment occurred between Wayne and North Main Streets. The train was headed north.

When crews arrived, they found several cars had derailed, including three tanker cars filled with ethanol. After an inspection, it was determined the cars were not leaking. According to Darke County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) Director Mindy Saylor, ethanol is a flammable liquid. EMA and the Greenville Fire Department are on the scene and will remain on the scene to monitor the tanks.

RJ Corman was able to move some of the cars not involved in the incident off of the roadway, but a portion of State Route 571 will be closed until cleanup is completed. Greenville City Police Lt. Ryan Benge urged motorists to use an alternate route. Non-commercial vehicles can most likely use State Route 49, Children’s Home Bradford Road and State Route 118 for those heading to or coming from Union City. Commercial trucks may need to use State Route 49, State Route 47 and State Route 118.

According to Greenville Safety Service Director Ryan Delk, derailment crews arrived in the evening on Tuesday, Jan. 23. In a later statement, Delk assured local residents the road would reopen on Thursday, Jan. 25.

RJ Corman issued the following statement, “We can confirm that there was a derailment on the R. J. Corman Railroad Company Western Ohio Lines (RJCW) in the town on Greenville, OH. Nine cars were involved, including six empty hopper cars followed by three loaded ethanol tanks. There were no injuries or environmental issues related to the derailment. With the support of local emergency response from the Greenville Fire Department and Greenville Police Department we were able to secure the area of the incident and determine there was no threat to the community. After the initial assessment multiple crews and an environmental team were dispatched to work the site and continue to monitor the situation. We will continue to investigate to properly determine the root cause of this incident.

We want to extend our utmost appreciation to all first responders and local organizations that responded to the incident. We are grateful to community of Greenville for their support and patience as we act responsibly to investigate and repair.”

The story will be updated as comments and information is received.

Mayor Jeff Whitaker said, “Thankfully no one got injured and the train was travelling at a very low rate of speed.”