WISCONSIN (CIVIC MEDIA) - Just last month, 22 cars of a train derailed in Dodge County, spilling crude oil just outside the town of Reeseville. It’s the second time in as many years that a train has derailed in Dodge County.

Around towns and cities there are more curves and turns in the railway. Those types of track offer themselves as greater opportunities for an accident. According to the National League of Cities, two thirds of all rail accidents happen within cities.

“When things go bad, they go really bad,” says Mark Burrows, a retired locomotive engineer and the editor of the Railroad Workers United newsletter.

A Civic Media review of derailments in Wisconsin since 2023 shows accidents along rail tracks across Wisconsin, with a concentration in Superior, where there have been seven derailments and an eighth less than a mile outside of city limits.

Derailments happen for a handful of reasons. One of the main issues, according to Burrows, is what is being asked of railroad workers. Fewer workers are being asked to inspect track, and in minimal time. All while trains are becoming harder to handle because of “the ridiculously long and heavy freight trains.”

Burrows says that track-caused derailments may be less due to the track and more on human pressures.

Of the 45 derailments reported in the state of Wisconsin from 2023 to now, 21 were reported as “human-caused,” according to a review of accident report forms filed with the Federal Railway Administration. Six of the seven derailments in Superior, according to accident reports, had just two crew members involved.

There have been 15 derailments in Wisconsin since 2023 that are reportedly caused by track issues.

Burrows said that jobs are being cut, making crews half the size that they once were. Crews of one engineer and one conductor are asked to work on trains that measure over a mile and a half long. He says those workers are doing their jobs without long and regimented training.

Civic Media has created an interactive map of every train derailment in the state reported to the Federal Railway Administration, from January 2023 to September 2025. This article and map do not include the Aug. 10, 2025 derailment in Dodge County due to data not yet being available on the FRA website. The map and its information comes from publicly available Form 54 reports from the Department of Transportation. Locations are found using sections 50 and 51 in Form 54s, giving the latitude and longitude reported with the derailment.

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