Runaway Boxcar Speeds Through Valley

DAYTON - Shortly before midnight Tuesday an empty boxcar broke free on the main rail line in Dayton and made a freak, high-speed getaway, waking residents throughout the Touchet Valley and eluding sheriff 's deputies before it finally slowed enough to be secured just past Prescott.

No damage or injuries were reported from the runaway car, which exceeded speeds of 60 miles per hour and barreled without warning past numerous unguarded crossings in Dayton, Waitsburg and Prescott. It also crossed Highway 124 just west of the intersection with Bolles Road.

"It's lucky that it happened when it did and didn't get derailed," said Steven Butler, dispatcher for the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, which got its first call about the runaway car at 11:40 p.m.

Ray Mings, a resident of Prescott whose home is about 50 yards from the rail line, said the passing car "sounded like a jet going by."

The Columbia County Sheriff's Office called in help from its counterpart in Walla Walla County, whose deputies tried to keep up with the car to detour any traffic away from some of the unguarded crossings. They could not keep up with the fast-moving freight car.

With no lighting and moving close to freeway speed limits, the car could have caused a serious accident had any automobiles crossed its path.

After a 17-mile race through the valley, the boxcar finally began to slow as it met a grade heading southwest toward Walla Walla just past the ball fields at Prescott High School. There the brake to the car was manually applied and its mysterious journey brought to an end.

Butler said the cause of the incident was under inves- tigation. Officials of the Blue Mountain Railroad Com­pany, whose parent company is based in Twin Falls, Idaho, said a representative was al­ready on his way to Dayton early Wednesday morning. Contacted on his way to the scene from Idaho, gen­eral manager Mark Ready said he would not have de­tails about the incident until he arrived in the Touchet Valley. He could not confirmthat the box car belongs to the Blue Mountain Railroad Company.