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COLORADO

Runaway rail cars spill beer, asphalt

DENVER — A string of runaway rail cars spilled beer in downtown Denver yesterday after they crashed into a parked locomotive and derailed.

No one was hurt, and the railroad’s mainline operations were not affected, said Steve Forsberg, a spokesman for BNSF Railway, based in Fort Worth, Texas.

Mr. Forsberg said a switch engine was assembling a train at about 4:30 a.m. when the crew lost control of the 34 cars, which rolled downhill into the stationary locomotive.

A tanker car carrying Coors beer overturned and spilled its contents onto the rail yard, Mr. Forsberg said. Another car carrying asphalt was damaged and leaked.

Mr. Forsberg did not know how much beer and asphalt spilled.

GEORGIA

Police say fisherman shot at contestants

GREENSBORO — An 86-year-old man didn’t want anyone getting too close to his fishing lines, so he took a few shots at a pair of fishermen competing at a tournament, authorities said. One of them was hit in the arm.

John Burke Yearwood of Madison was jailed on a charge of aggravated assault and later released on bond.

Greene County Sheriff Chris Houston said Mr. Yearwood has been putting his fishing lines out in the area for decades.

Two men competing in a fishing tournament Saturday on the Oconee River told authorities that when they got close to Mr. Yearwood’s lines, Mr. Yearwood raised a rifle and fired two shots that hit the water in front of their boat. A sheriff’s department report says Mr. Yearwood — who was at a fishing camp, but was not in the tournament — fired a third shot that hit Craig Barnett as he sat in the boat.

The men said they sped away in the boat and used a cell phone to call 911.

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