A toxic cloud

last updated 8 January 2015

Graniteville, S.C.

Nine people were killed by toxic fumes last week when a freight train carrying chlorine gas crashed into parked rail cars in South Carolina. Rodney Johnson was working at a nearby textile mill, where six workers died. “I saw a green mist coming toward me,” he said. “It tore me all up. My eyes burned and lungs hurt. I couldn’t breathe.” The train engineer was among the dead. Hundreds were injured and thousands evacuated, as gases leaked for days. Investigators said a crew that moved two rail cars onto a side rail had failed to switch the tracks back to the main line, sending the next train smashing into them.