Illinois Central Railroad Company, Derailment

What Happened

About 2:35 p.m., September 11, 1969, an Illinois Central freight train struck a pedestrian near the Glendora, Mississippi, station. When the engineer applied the brakes in full emergency in an attempt to avoid striking the pedestrian, the 149-car train buckled at the 108th car. The resulting derailment involved 15 cars, including eight tank cars loaded with vinyl chloride. The cars separated in the derailment and the coupler of one of the cars punctured one of the tank cars, spilling its contents on the ground.