In the days after a train carrying highly flammable oil to Yorktown plunged off its tracks in downtown Lynchburg, dumping 15 cars into the James River and sparking a fire so intense that emergency crews had to simply let it burn itself out, federal track inspectors found more than 20 significant defects on the rail line through that city.
On top of that, six weeks before the derailment, federal inspectors found 14 faults on the line in Lynchburg, according to Federal Railroad Administration records obtained by the Daily Press through a Freedom of Information Act request.
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