Derailed Train Cars Spew Toxic Fumes
Police Evacuate Residents From Lafayette, La., After Rail Accident

LAFAYETTE, La., May 17, 2008

Train derailment in Lafayette, La.
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A train derailment in Lafayette, La. Toxic fumes were released prompting evacuation of the area. (KLFY)


(CBS/AP) Two rail cars jumped the track and overturned, leaking hydrochloric acid and ethylene oxide, forcing police to evacuate thousands of residents within a 1-mile radius of the accident.

The cars jumped the track around 2:20 a.m. Saturday. Lafayette Corporal Paul Mouton says a total of six cars derailed, and two of them began to leak.

CBS affiliate KLFY correspondent Hubert Tate reports that officers have blocked off the area within a one-mile radius of the scene, and local firefighters and state police are advising everyone within the area to leave.

Mouton says the area is mostly businesses, but there are also a few apartment complexes and a nursing home. He estimates thousands will have to be evacuated.

Acadian Ambulance official Clay Henry 20 bedbound residents of the Our Lady of the Oaks nursing home were being taken to a hospital.

He also says that two railroad employees had earlier been taken to a hospital for possible exposure and for observation.