Rosedale

The National Transportation Safety Board released new details Wednesday on its investigation into last month's train derailment and explosion in Rosedale, finding that more chemicals were released in the crash than originally reported. NTSB investigators also found that stop signs at the grade crossing where a truck and freight train collided were faded and had been taken off their original mountings. The report is preliminary, and the board has said its full investigation into the derailment could take a year or more.

An employee at a scaffolding company next to the railroad tracks in Rosedale was one of the first people to see the train leave its tracks after it rammed into a truck last month. "There's just a train wreck in front of us and it's on fire," the man said, in one of more than 40 recorded 911 calls released Friday by Baltimore County police. "There's just like a fire and it's nasty. " "Did the train derail?" the dispatcher asked. "What type of train is it?" The questions would continue in 911 calls from Bel Air to Baltimore City, dozens of them, for nearly an hour.

As smoke rose above Rosedale homes hours after a CSX train derailed and exploded May 28, many residents wondered what exactly was burning. Three of the railcars were transporting hazardous materials, and investigators believe it was sodium chlorate that exploded. Hazardous materials pass through American neighborhoods each day by train, and some advocates have been pushing for years to make it easier for people to know what those cars are carrying - and what effect they could have in a catastrophic accident.

The National Transportation Safety Board released new details Wednesday on its investigation into last month's train derailment and explosion in Rosedale, finding that more chemicals were released in the crash than originally reported. NTSB investigators also found that stop signs at the grade crossing where a truck and freight train collided were faded and had been taken off their original mountings. The report is preliminary, and the board has said its full investigation into the derailment could take a year or more.

Federal investigators on Thursday reconstructed the scene of this week's collision between a CSX cargo train and a truck, hoping to piece together more information on the derailment and explosion that rocked businesses and homes in the Rosedale area. Crews with the National Transportation Safety Board plan to stay in Baltimore County for several more days before heading back to their headquarters in Washington to continue their probe of Tuesday's crash, according to board member Robert Sumwalt.

One man was killed and another was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after a shooting early Wednesday morning in Rosedale, said a Baltimore County police spokesman. Officers responded to the 5200 block of Daybrook Circle for a report of shots fired and found a man who had died of a gunshot wound inside an apartment, said the spokesman, Cpl. Michael Hill. They also found a second victim who had been shot, Hill said. That man was taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in serious condition, he said.

Three men were injured in a stabbing Sunday morning at the Sunset Beach Bar & Grill in Rosedale, Baltimore County police said. A knife fight broke out at 1:49 at the bar, in the 11400 block of Pulaski Highway, said Cpl. George Erhardt. One victim was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, one was taken to Franklin Square Hospital Center, and a third "is running around somewhere and hasn't checked in anywhere," Erhardt said. The two who went to the hospital were in stable condition, he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board expects to conclude by week's end its on-scene investigation of the railroad crossing derailment and explosion in Rosedale. The agency, which has been gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses since the May 28 accident, hopes to debrief John Alban Jr., the driver of the truck that slammed into the CSX train, who was hospitalized after the crash and was recently discharged. Completion of the investigation and a determination of what caused the crash will most likely take a year or more, NTSB officials said.

As of 9 a.m. Thursday, icy conditions have been reported around Philadelphia Road and Golden Ring Road in Rosedale, where a broken water main is being repaired. There were no major delays reported on Baltimore area transit systems.

An unidentified man was struck and killed Tuesday morning by a southbound MARC train in the Rosedale area. The accident occurred shortly after 7 a.m. just south of where the rail lines cross under I-695, Maryland Transit Administration officials said. The train stopped and the crew announced that a fatality had occurred, according to several passengers. Baltimore County police arrived at 7:18 a.m. and searched the area. They located the body near Schafers Lane and Northeast Creek Road, east of Pulaski Highway.

As smoke rose above Rosedale homes hours after a CSX train derailed and exploded May 28, many residents wondered what exactly was burning. Three of the railcars were transporting hazardous materials, and investigators believe it was sodium chlorate that exploded. Hazardous materials pass through American neighborhoods each day by train, and some advocates have been pushing for years to make it easier for people to know what those cars are carrying - and what effect they could have in a catastrophic accident.

The National Transportation Safety Board expects to conclude by week's end its on-scene investigation of the railroad crossing derailment and explosion in Rosedale. The agency, which has been gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses since the May 28 accident, hopes to debrief John Alban Jr., the driver of the truck that slammed into the CSX train, who was hospitalized after the crash and was recently discharged. Completion of the investigation and a determination of what caused the crash will most likely take a year or more, NTSB officials said.

John Alban Jr., the driver seriously injured after his truck collided with a freight train in Rosedale last week — triggering an explosion felt around the region — was discharged from the hospital. Maryland Shock Trauma Center spokeswoman Cynthia Rivers said Monday that Alban had been discharged Sunday. The 50-year-old Essex man had been in serious condition since the crash last Tuesday. After Alban's truck struck the southbound 45-car freight train, 15 cars derailed and chemicals on board caught fire and exploded, shearing off the side of a nearby building and blowing out windows and cracking ceilings on other buildings.

Bob Marshall was on the phone in his office at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in East Baltimore when he heard the boom, felt the building shake and saw the plume of smoke on the horizon. "This is what we've trained for," he thought. As news poured in that a train had derailed and caused a large explosion less than two miles away in Rosedale, Marshall, the hospital's emergency services administrator, began rapidly putting together an incident command center to deal with a potential influx of casualties.

Federal investigators on Thursday reconstructed the scene of this week's collision between a CSX cargo train and a truck, hoping to piece together more information on the derailment and explosion that rocked businesses and homes in the Rosedale area. Crews with the National Transportation Safety Board plan to stay in Baltimore County for several more days before heading back to their headquarters in Washington to continue their probe of Tuesday's crash, according to board member Robert Sumwalt.

As Rosedale residents and business owners began to clean up after the fiery train derailment, federal officials said Wednesday that a chemical, sodium chlorate, had likely exploded in one of the train cars. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday afternoon's explosion occurred 5 minutes and 23 seconds after the train collided with a truck at an unprotected crossing. Officials will inspect the truck - a 2003 Mack Granite operated by Alban Waste LLC - including an examination of the brakes, board member Robert Sumwalt said at a news briefing.

"Elvis has left the building," a popular saying goes, but it's the return of the King that has patrons of a Rosedale eatery all shook up. The 7- foot statue of Elvis Presley thieves stole from its perch atop the Happy Day Diner in Rosedale last month has been restored and returned, and the restaurant's co-owner says her establishment's star attraction is looking better than ever. "He seems 100 years younger," said Maria Pigiaditis, who watched two men haul the statue up a ladder and reinstall it Saturday.

A Baltimore man was fatally shot in the parking lot of a nightclub in eastern Baltimore County early Saturday morning, police said. George William Bryant Jr., 36, of Pentwood Road was shot multiple times in the head and neck in the parking lot of Club Baltimore at 8014 Pulaski Highway in the Rosedale area, according to police. Detective Cathy Batton said the shooting resulted from an argument that occurred inside the club around closing time. A security guard at the club called police at 1:51 a.m. to report shots fired and "people screaming," said Baltimore County Police Cpl. John Wachter.

A freight train smacked into a truck carrying garbage and careened off the tracks in Rosedale Tuesday afternoon, triggering an explosion felt throughout the region and sending up a plume of black smoke visible for miles. Authorities identified the driver of the truck as John Alban Jr., a retired Baltimore County firefighter who owns a waste collection company near the scene of the crash. The Essex man was listed in serious condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center Wednesday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.

As accidents go, few of recent memory have grabbed the region's attention like Tuesday's collision and explosion involving a CSX freight train and a trash truck in Rosedale. If Baltimoreans weren't close enough to hear the tooth-rattling blast, they likely noticed the giant plume of dark smoke that rose from the scene and lasted for hours. Yet, as severe as the crash and derailment were - and considering the potential risk of toxic chemicals that might have been on that train - the outcome was not nearly as bad as feared.