All this talk reminds me of a little incident that happened about 9 years ago at Donaldsonville Louisiana on the UP Livonia Subdivision. Maintenance of Way had just installed a new switch on the wye there. They didn't install it right. There is a communications tower right in the middle of all legs of this wye. The Mignight Donaldsonville Local was going around the wye with some cars right after the switch had been installed and wouldn't you know it, they derailed! The crew didn't know this (slow speed, dark and on a curve) and the derailed cars managed to grab the guy wires of the communications tower and pulled on it until it came completely down! A Southbound train with engineer Jim P. Wells, A.K.A. "story teller" for all the great stories he used to tell all the time, was on the approach. He saw the local up ahead going around the wye and changed from channel 27 (road channel) to channel 20 (yard channel) to talk to the crew when they started to talk about the communications tower going down. Fourtunately, the tower went away from the mainline and did not come in contact with anyone. Needless to say, this disrupted all communications from Addis to New Orleans until a new tower could be installed, this took about a week as I remember it.
One thing that I have learned in all my years of being both a railfan and railroader, is I always watch/inspect a train from the direction it is comming from until the rear passes. I always stand a safe distance away, and the minute I see anything unusual like this, I back even further away. I find that by doing this, I can't go wrong. I always have an escape path that I can take off running on if I need to do so to prevent injury to myself.
To add to this, there was/is a Safety Slogan on the UP Chicago Service Unit. They made several signs and placed them at various places throghout. If you ride a Commuter Train past the east end of Proviso Yard and you know where to look, you will see this sign. It says, "Ask yourself, "What could go wrong?"
It is my opinion that the railfans who photographed the CSX Grain Train derailing just west of East Bridge Jct. Tower in Metairie, were in a good safe spot, a safe distance away from the tracks and the incident. It apprears that they had room to escape if needed be. Good job guys!