Gwinnett Daily Post

Staff Photo: John Bohn Officials investigate the scene of a train derailment of several train cars carrying grain near Caboose Court in Lawrenceville Tuesday afternoon. No injuries were reported.

LAWRENCEVILLE -- Four overturned train cars in Lawrenceville are likely to cost railroad company CSX millions of dollars and plenty of time, but local officials know the result could have been far worse.

"Gwinnett avoided a disaster," fire department spokesman Capt. Eric Eberly said Tuesday, standing on a hill overlooking one of the derailed cars.

The disaster would have come if the train had been carrying something hazardous, not the corn-based concoction to be used in animal feed that it was hauling. Instead, CSX will just have a lot of work to do.

Eberly said fire crews were called to the scene behind Cannonball Court in Lawrenceville -- not far from the busy intersection of Lawrenceville Highway and Sugarloaf Parkway -- around 3 p.m. Tuesday. The final four cars of the train headed northeast on the tracks went off the rails and overturned, spilling their contents into the nearby wooded area.

CSX employees were reportedly working on the tracks when the train came through and derailed, Eberly said, but no injuries were reported. A railroad spokesman was not immediately available at the scene, and fire officials weren't sure what caused the incident.

"It's unclear how the communications went between the train and the workers and how the train derailed," Eberly said.

It was believed the tracks would not be up and running until sometime Wednesday morning. The railroad runs under Lawrenceville Highway and will not cause traffic delays.