Runaway Train Dramatically Derails After 57 Miles

Aussie freight train rolled away after driver got out to inspect an issue
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 6, 2018 2:10 AM CST
Dramatic Derailment Stops Runaway Train
Stock photo of an iron ore train in Western Australia.   (Getty Images/Beyond Images)

The driver of a freight train in Western Australia got out to inspect an issue with one of its 268 wagons early Monday—and it kept going without him. The train, loaded with iron ore, hurtled across 57 miles of the remote Pilbara region before it was deliberately derailed from a remote control center hundreds of miles away while traveling at almost 70mph, the Guardian reports. BHP Billiton has suspended iron ore operations while the incident is investigated, 9News reports. The train, which had been traveling from Newman to Port Hedland, sustained serious damage, as did around a mile of track, but nobody was injured. (This train in India was carrying around 1,000 people when it rolled away without a driver.)

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