Edgar Thomson Works

2 hurt when train slams into truck at Braddock crossing

A train carrying military vehicles slammed into a semi-trailer in Braddock on Thursday afternoon, hospitalizing the truck driver and train conductor.

Allegheny County police detectives and the fire marshal's office are investigating the crash, which occurred about noon near the intersection of 11th and Washington streets along the riverfront train tracks, a block from U.S. Steel's Edgar Thomson Works.

Braddock fire Chief Tom Petrovic said the driver was alert and conscious when paramedics pulled him from the wreck.

"From what I heard, the driver was on the track when he saw the train and couldn't back up in time," Petrovic said.

The impact from the train severed the truck cab from its cargo trailer, ripped it from its chassis, mangled the engine and caused the cab to topple over onto its passenger side. Although the truck's front axle was thrown 15 feet from the cab, the empty cargo trailer was largely undamaged.

Officials said the driver, who was not identified, was taken by ambulance to an undisclosed hospital. His condition was not immediately known.

The train, which consisted of two locomotives and 92 freight cars, was heading from Chicago to Cumberland, Md., said CSX spokesman Bob Sullivan. Officials at the scene said that the train conductor was uninjured but taken to a hospital as a precaution.

The mile-long train remained stopped on the tracks for several hours, blocking other railroad crossings at least as far west as Second Street.

Mon Valley steel plants to get air permits - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

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Two of Allegheny County's bigger sources of industrial pollution, U.S. Steel Corp.'s Clairton Coke Works and the company's Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock, will get federal air quality permits in September, county health officials said on Wednesday.

Granting the permits is a breakthrough for the steel producer, which made a series of costly improvements at both plants, and it represents progress for the understaffed Health Department's backlog in bringing industry into compliance with federal air standards, officials said.

"We were not able to do the work to process the permits for Clairton and Edgar Thomson. That is what has most recently held up the approvals. We have had consent agreements with both sites and required them to do a number of things, which they have," said department spokesman Guillermo Cole.

The Health Department issues federal air quality permits, known as Title V permits. They are a requirement since Congress amended the Clean Air Act in 2002.

U.S. Steel did not immediately comment on the permits' approval.

Under the consent agreements, the company spent at least $1.2 billion to make improvements at the Clairton plant, the largest coke manufacturing facility in the United States. That repair and maintenance program helped eliminate pollution problems at nine of 12 coke batteries. Six of the nine were slated for shutdown and replacement in the next few years.

At the Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock, which had violations, the company made improvements to the basic oxygen process shop and ladle metallurgical facility.

Issuance of permits does not mean the air quality inspectors have finished their work.

Four companies -- Neville Chemicals on Neville Island, Koppers in Clairton, Allegheny Ludlum in Natrona Heights and Eastman Chemicals -- each operate plants in Allegheny County that do not meet federal air quality standards, health officials said.

"There are some compliance issues with emissions in each of these facilities, and you cannot issue a permit as long as there is not compliance," Cole said.

Even with the U.S. Steel permits finalized, questions persist about air quality in shadow of the Clairton plant.

At yesterday's Board of Health meeting, officials from South Allegheny School District asked the health board to contribute toward a $9.2 million plan to install climate control and air filtration systems at two schools.

"This is going to be an ongoing project, and we are looking at different sources of funding, including foundations," said school Superintendent Wayne Gdovic.

Records and briefs of the United States Supreme Court

Proceedings

Iron age

A Nation of Steel, The Making of Modern America, 1865-1925

Public service regulation