Runaway rail car eluded border patrol

Date: Thursday, August 30, 2012, 6:56am EDT

A security breach involving a rail car that crossed the Whirlpool Bridge in Niagara Falls, N.Y., from the U.S. into Canada did not get the attention of border authorities in either country for some 11 hours.

The incident happened in the early morning hours on Aug. 12 and remains under investigation.

The Niagara Falls Review reports a two-level vehicle carrier train car got loose from the CSX rail yard in Niagara Falls and rolled down the tracks toward the Whirlpool Bridge.

An official with CSX told the paper the incident is being investigated as vandalism, suggesting someone pulled a pin connecting the 145-foot-long, 20-foot-tall car to a string of other train cars and released the brakes.

The car rolled from the rail yard east of Hyde Park Blvd. to the Whirlpool Bridge, crossed the bridge’s upper level tracks and rolled to an area near the Via Rail station on Bridge St. in Niagara Falls, Ont.

Michael Scioli of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told the paper that alarms on the Canadian side of the bridge went off between 1:30 a.m. and 1:45 a.m. alerting American border guards of an issue.

However, agents on the U.S. side checked the bridge for anyone or anything attempting to cross, but the car had already passed.

Runaway rail car eluded border patrol - Buffalo - Business First