Federal investigators say BNSF railroad is analyzing a section of fractured rail after last month’s fiery derailment that prompted evacuations in southwest Minnesota, but they didn’t say definitively that the broken rail caused the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board issued its preliminary report Tuesday on the March 30 derailment that forced about 800 people from their homes in Raymond, Minnesota, after 10 ethanol cars derailed and several of them caught fire from the fuel additive leak. Those ethanol cars were among 23 cars that came off the tracks shortly before 1 a.m. that day.
