Star Tribune
Broken rail caused central Minnesota derailment, NTSB says
The train rumbling through Raymond, Minn., in the early morning hours of March 30 worsened an existing rail surface condition, causing a section of track to break underneath the train, according to a report released Monday by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The fiery derailment forced the evacuation of about 800 people from their homes in the southwest Minnesota town and caused an estimated $1.9 million of damage to railroad equipment and tracks.
A preliminary report released in April said a fractured rail was found after the incident but stopped short of stating the broken rail caused the derailment. The new report lists the cause as the “catastrophic” rail failure at the Raymond elevator track switch. “Post-accident inspections and evidence obtained indicate the track-train dynamics worsened a rail head surface condition until a complete sectional break out of the rail head occurred underneath” the train, the report said.
About two dozen train cars jumped the tracks, some landing on their sides and some in an “accordion fashion,” the report states. Hazardous materials leaked from five tank cars: Two of the cars sustained punctured shells and released ethanol, which ignited and destroyed gaskets on three additional tank cars and led to the further release of hazardous materials and spreading fire, the report said. The environmental cleanup was estimated at about $1.6 million, documents state.
Similar deficiencies with tank car gaskets were identified after a 2022 derailment in Texas, and the NTSB recently released new standards for gaskets, as well as new specifications for tank cars carrying hazardous materials to ensure appropriate thermal protections are in place.
The report says the train was traveling about 45 mph, under the 49 mph speed limit, and none of the employees involved had drugs or alcohol in their system.
Documents released Monday include information about pre-trip inspections of the rail cars, which were loaded and inspected in Marshall on March 24, but documents do not state when the last inspection of the track was completed.
A BNSF spokesperson on Monday didn’t disclose when the track through Raymond was last inspected but said the company “regularly conducts extensive track, bridge, rail and weather event inspections across our network” using a combination of rail cars and trucks, bridge inspection vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles and specially trained inspectors.
“We meet or exceed all federal inspection requirements,” the spokesperson said via email.
After the derailment sent plumes of fire and smoke into the night sky — and as temperatures hovered just above zero — first responders from several agencies rushed to the scene and went door to door to tell residents living near the crash they needed to leave the area.
By midmorning, many of the weary residents who had gathered at a church about 8 miles south of town were able to return home. Gov. Tim Walz and BNSF officials spoke to residents before, assuring them the air was safe to breathe and water safe to drink.
The train cars continued to leak throughout the day but officials said most of the liquid would likely burn off and not seep into the groundwater because of the frozen ground. The fire was extinguished by the following morning and cleanup began soon after.
That hasn’t ebbed with Simpli-Fi. The startup incorporated in 2018 as a company based out of Florida that integrated technology systems together in commercial buildings to work as a single unit. But business sputtered when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and Campbell had to make staff cuts to his team of 16 employees. He called it one of “the worst times” of his life.
“But during that time is where we made a pivot,” Campbell said.
He set out to find a new technology, eventually spotting NASA’s electronic nose thanks to Brown Venture Group, a St. Paul based firm that supports Black, Latino and Indigenous tech startups. Campbell’s brother, Paul Campbell, is a partner at the firm but said he recused himself from the investment decision.
Chris Campbell was skeptical of the electronic nose’s capabilities at first but sprung for a commercialization license after spending a year researching the technology. By this past summer, he had moved the company to Minnesota and specifically the Osborne building because both are “known for device creation,” he said.
Simpli-Fi’s sensor packs some of the science of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry — which require huge machines — into a sensor the size of a dime, Campbell said. Using nanotubes, the sensor picks up metabolic qualities in the air and breath, he said.
For now, the company is focused on the C. diff-sensing Provectus Canary device, which scans the air around a hospital patient to detect the bacteria that causes the infection, which has gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea. The company is working toward the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval for using the sensor to detect various diseases.
A Minneapolis man was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison for murdering his neighbor in their North Side apartment building last year.
Walter Lee Hill, 59, had pleaded guilty on Monday to second-degree intentional murder. He will get credit for having served nearly a year in jail.
Police were called to the Gateway Lofts on W. Broadway Avenue last November on a report that someone was shot. Officers found Donald Edmondson, 60, dead on the floor of his apartment with a gunshot wound to the chest.
A video camera in the hallway showed Hill knocking on Edmondson’s door, reaching into his sweatshirt pocket and firing his gun once. Hill then left in his Lexus, which officers found near Elliot Park downtown.
They spotted Hill walking nearby, asked for his ID and arrested him when he said something to the effect that they had the right guy.
A witness told police they saw Hill shoot Edmondson, and another said there had been an ongoing dispute between the two. Two days before the murder, Hill had called police because he believed neighbors were breaking into his apartment.
In a statement, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Edmondson “should still be alive. A violent act committed with such disregard by Mr. Hill has taken him from his family. This sentence delivers accountability and protects our community, and I hope it brings some measure of peace to Mr. Edmondson’s loved ones as they attempt to move forward with their lives.”
ROCHESTER – Buoyed by strong growth in the health care industry, Minnesota’s third-largest city continues to outpace the rest of the state in job creation.
The Rochester Metropolitan Statistical Area added about 7,000 jobs over the past year, a 6.3% year-to-year increase, according to the September jobs report from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). By comparison, Minnesota as a whole was up 1.2% during the same time period. The next closest region to Rochester was Mankato, which grew 1.6% year to year.
Much of the growth in Rochester MSA, which includes Dodge, Fillmore, Olmsted and Wabasha counties, was driven by a 15% year-to-year increase in the education and health services sector. The sector employed 62,435 people in the region in September, nearly half the overall workforce.
The strong job numbers come as Mayo Clinic breaks ground on the first phases of “Bold. Forward. Unbound. In Rochester.” The $5 billion project — the largest investment in Minnesota history — is expected to bring about 2,000 construction workers to Rochester in the coming years.
While Mayo has not said how many employees it plans to hire once the new facilities open, local economic development officials expect the impacts of the expansion to reverberate across the region.
“As their growth goes up, the rest of the economy grows as well,” said John Wade, president of the Rochester Area Economic Development, Inc. (RAEDI). “If you think about neighboring communities, too, there will be more housing opportunities and job opportunities and businesses looking to expand.”
Wade said he also sees potential for growth in other sectors tied to Mayo, such as hospitality, which makes up more than 8% of the region’s workforce. Precision manufacturing and medical technology were also identified as potential growth sectors.
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