TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.—Police Chief Jason Wright feared the worst as he rushed to the scene of a freight train derailment in Michigan’s Van Buren Township, mindful of a fiery rail crash this month in Ohio that led to evacuations and a toxic chemical release.
Instead, the situation a half-hour’s drive west of Detroit was far less grim: 28 of 134 cars in a Norfolk Southern train had gone at least partially off the track Thursday with a couple overturned and several others upright but knocked sideways. No one was injured and nothing appeared to have spilled. The lone car carrying hazardous materials wasn’t affected.
