ATLANTA — A fiery crash between a CSX train and a semi-truck shut down MARTA and part of a busy area of Atlanta’s westside.
The truck scattered what looked to be Amazon packages up and down the street.
Why it took hours to track down the driver LIVE on Channel 2 at 4:00 p.m.
Atlanta Fire Rescue said the wreck happened around 3:45 a.m. along Lee and Sparks streets.
That is close to Lee & White and the Westside Trail of the Atlanta Beltline.
Atlanta Fire Rescue said the semi-truck caught fire after the impact but has since been extinguished. The train dragged the truck about 500 feet before it came to a stop.
“Our firefighters were able to come out here, put a stop to this fire relatively quickly and keep the fire isolated to the semi-trailer and not to the train,” said Capt. Andrew Anderson with Atlanta Fire Rescue.
Emergency crews said it appears no one was injured in the crash, but the driver of the semi-truck is nowhere to be found.
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“We’re assuming the driver is no longer on the scene,” Capt. Anderson said.
A neighbor told Channel 2’s Steve Gehlbach that they saw the driver limping down the street away from the crash.
MARTA rail runs above the intersection where the crash happened and is currently shut down in that area.
“There is some heat that made contact with the support system of the rail. It looks like everything’s going to be fine, just some very light heat. But as a precaution, MARTA is taking the time out to make sure everything’s safe,” Anderson said.
In a post on social media, MARTA said it was providing a bus bridge to help passengers get to their destinations.
“Trains will not continue north or southbound from Oakland to West End. Bus bridge has been requested from the following stations until further notice: Lakewood, Oakland City, West End, and Garnett Stations,” the transit agency said.
Channel 2’s Steve Gehlbach was live at the scene throughout the morning on Channel 2 Action News This Morning starting at 4:30 a.m. and heard the trains starting to move through the area a short time later.
AFR also said there was nothing hazardous on the train or the semi-truck. However, one of our photographers shot images of hundreds of Amazon packages thrown along the tracks from the impact.
Amazon responded to our inquiry stating the following:
- These packages were being delivered by a third party carrier, not an Amazon truck, and the driver isn’t employed by us.
- We’ve confirmed that these were packages of shipping supplies, not customer orders. If they had been customer orders, our team has an automatic process in place that initiates replacements for impacted packages, so customers don’t have to – they are just notified that they will receive a replacement or refund.
Triple Team Traffic’s Mike Sheilds says your best alternate routes around the wreck are Northside Drive, I-75/85, or Cascade Avenue.
CSX sent us a statement shortly after 12 p.m. saying:
“At approximately 3:43 a.m. on Friday, June 26, a CSX train came in contact with a vehicle located on the tracks near the crossing at Sylvan Rd and Lee St in Atlanta, Georgia. There were no injuries to the train crew. The cause of the incident is currently under investigation.”