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.
A St. Paul man who was in critical condition following a fire last week at his home in the Battle Creek neighborhood has died, marking the city’s eighth fire death this year.
According to a news release from the St. Paul Fire Department, the man was found unconscious in the basement of a house on Nelson Street early in the morning of Oct. 17, after fire crews had extinguished a fire at the two-story residence. Paramedics undertook life-saving measures before taking him to the hospital.
No one else was injured in the fire, which was found to have been accidental and started in the engine of a car parked in the tuck-under garage. The fire was confined to the garage, but heavy smoke filled the house. Smoke detectors enabled others in the house to exit safely, officials said.
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.”
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