FAYETTE COUNTY, Ga. — People in Tyrone, Georgia are breathing a sigh of relief after a train derailment sent six boxcars off the track without injuring anyone.
At around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Barber Jerimiah Jones said the normal rumble of the nearby train seemed strange.
“Today was a little different. Today, when it came by, we felt like the whole building started to shake,” Jones told Channel 2′s Michael Doudna.
As the rumbling got louder, Jones said he looked outside to a coworker taking a break just out the front door.
“And the look on his face told us something was wrong,” Jones said.
When they walked outside they found wreckage. The usually straight tracks were broken and crooked. Wheels littered the side of the track and six boxcars were toppled on their side.
They skidded to a stop just feet from the building.
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“The thing that saved us was, of course, God, and those hills and those trees that stopped it from going into the building,” Jones said.
Throughout the evening, an investigation and cleanup process began.
Officials worked to determine what caused the train to fly off the rails.
Residents said they were just thankful they were witnesses, not victims.
“So I would tell anybody that any moment you get to tell your loved ones that you love them, take advantage of it because you never know what’s going to happen. I’m just happy to be alive,” Jones said.
Crews continued to remove debris and clear the wreckage overnight.
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