SCRANTON -- Investigators are looking into what led to a runaway train car that finally stopped in Scranton late Thursday afternoon.
Officials with the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad Company said the train car was in Archbald, loaded with lumber, when it rolled away, likely from a faulty handbrake.
Train workers said they alerted the 911 center and police were immediately dispatched to all railroad crossings, to keep people from being injured.
Officers in Scranton blocked more than half a dozen railroad crossings.
"I just seen a bunch of cops over there, and I didn't know if someone got hit or a car got hit or what happened," said Neal Phillips of Scranton.
When the car got to the area of Olive Street in the city, it was switched to a track that went up a hill, to slow it down. A railroad employee jumped on it, first trying the handbrake and when that did not work, threw wood and wedges under the wheels to stop it.
"Oh my God, I would be scared, I would be real scared, but we have a hero that saved us. I don't know his name, but thank God for him," said Bernard Scott of Scranton. "It could have been pretty dangerous if someone was walking by or a car was driving by," agreed Neal Phillips.
Police said no one was injured by the rail car. Railroad officials said they will continue their investigation into exactly what happened and take the car to be repaired.
