‘It Sounded Like 

5 Freight Trains’

Neighbor Describes XNG Truck Crash

On Route 28 South Of Schuyler Lake

By PARKER FISH • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.COM

SCHUYLER LAKE – Responding to the fourth XNG truck mishap since transports began in February, firefighters and emergency personnel blocked off several roads leading to a crash site near Schuyler Lake until 3 a.m. today, keeping some people from their homes for hours.

“We were up at the florists, and when we came back down, they had the road blocked off,” said Exeter resident Christine Allen, who lives less than half a mile from the crash site. “We couldn’t get to our house, so we went to Stewart’s and got a banana split.”

Allen was finally able to get back to her home later in the evening when responders let her through to get to her house. According to Allen, she heard a loud noise when crews released the gas from the trailer.

“I swear, it sounded like five freight trains coming through,” she. “We didn’t know what the noise was. I figured we needed to get out of there. I felt like something was going to blow.”

According to Allen, she was not contacted by emergency responders about the natural gas release, but had concerns about her own health breathing in the fumes. “No one from the fire department talked with us,” she said. “If I had known that this was going to happen, I would have liked to known the health hazards of breathing that stuff in.”

XNG issued the following statement on the accident, saying:

“XNG employs state-of-the-art monitoring systems and has already determined that the truck was going below the speed limit at the time of the accident. The vehicle’s safety systems operated as they should and there have been no injuries reported at this time.

XNG is grateful for the quick and professional response of local and New York State emergency responders. We are working cooperatively with them to help ensure that there is no danger to the community or the environment.

As always, we will use this incident to learn about our processes and procedures and to make any needed adjustments to help improve our strong safety record. Again, we are thankful to the local emergency responders who have helped us in response to this event.”

According to Binghamton-area activist Bill Huston, multiple emergency units were dispatched at 3:05 p.m. yesterday afternoon for a roll-over accident on Route 28 south of Schuyler Lake.

“From what I gathered, the driver started to go off the side of the road, and tried to correct himself back onto the road, but by that point, the trailer was already starting to tip over,” said Huston. “Those trailers are known to have a very high center of gravity, so they’re well known to be a sever roll-over risk.”

Huston has campaigned heavily against the natural gas trucks since as many as 80 trips a day began last February, carrying fracked natural gas in Northeast Pennsylvania the Town of Manheim, near Little Falls, where it is injected into the Iroquois pipeline.