ST. LOUIS — This week's Vintage KSDK takes us to St. Clair, Missouri on a spring afternoon of the year 2000, when a train derailed literally right in some residents' back yard.
"We heard half the train went by and it sounded normal,” explained one resident.
Moments later, 18 of 115 cars left the tracks.
"It started screeching,” she recalled. “You could hear metal grinding. You could hear sounded thunderous and the house was shaking."
One car came to rest 130 feet of one homeowner's bedroom.
They were among the few to get an offer of a free night in a hotel.
"I guess for the noise, because they're going to be moving the train and stuff all night,” one man, who lived near where the train wreckage, said.
Some residents were evacuated until investigators determined there was no hazardous material on board.
"There's no injuries,” a fire department spokesman said. “Train crew were all right. People in the house here were home. They were not injured."
In the end, some vehicles were damaged by flying debris, and two rail crossings were damaged, but residents agreed it could have been much worse.
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