Commissioner: Collinsville derailment victim has died, cleanup to close southbound U.S. 377 at times

Recovery work from a deadly train derailment in Collinsville will shut down southbound U.S. 377 from time to time, Grayson County Commissioner Lindsay Wright told the county's Commissioners Court on Aug. 25. Wright reported that the victim of the wreck had died and that crews were still cleaning up the site, which she described as south of Whitesboro.

Union Pacific, in a statement published by KXII, said the derailment happened around 5:30 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 16, near the spot where U.S. 377 meets County Line Church Road in Collinsville.

Wright's Aug. 25 remarks, captured in the county's meeting video, pointed back to an update she had given commissioners the week before. The county's meeting record shows that earlier session was the Commissioners Court meeting held Tuesday, Aug. 18.

The county lists Wright as its Precinct 3 commissioner. Her office's duties, according to the county, take in county roads, rural ambulance service and support for rural fire protection.

The Collinsville Fire Department had already put its own limits in writing. Its strategic plan for 2023 through 2028 said the department did not have enough people to cover emergency calls and special assignments, and it reported trouble communicating with other agencies. The plan counted the department's working ties with the Whitesboro, Gunter and Tioga fire departments as a strength. Among its goals were more paid staff and greater capacity for hazardous-materials response and technical rescue.

The area has seen a fatal rail wreck before. On May 19, 2004, two BNSF freight trains collided near Gunter, killing an engineer and spilling diesel fuel that caught fire, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The board found that the southbound crew failed to obey a track warrant directing it to wait for the northbound train. Investigators also pointed to operating procedures on track without signals and to informal communication from the dispatcher.

Nationally, industry figures show derailments declining. The Association of American Railroads, citing federal data, reported that derailments across the country fell by roughly a seventh in 2025, while accidents at highway-rail crossings stayed about level. Union Pacific said its own derailment rate last year was its best annual result. In July 2024 testimony, the Federal Railroad Administration said Class I railroad yard-derailment rates in 2023 were 51% higher than a decade earlier, and it stressed comparing rates per million miles rather than raw totals to account for changes in traffic.

In August, the Texas Department of Transportation announced more than $755 million in federal money for projects statewide that separate roads from rail lines, which the agency called its largest federal grant of that kind.

Under Federal Railroad Administration rules, railroads have 30 days after the end of the month in which an accident occurs to file reportable details, and the agency's public accident data generally appear about three months after an event.