JACKSON TOWNSHIP | CSX and federal officials will investigate the derailment of a freight train and the death of a Dyer man who was killed during the cleanup of the derailment.

CSX officials also announced Friday that one of two tracks affected in Wednesday's derailment was reopened to traffic and the second was nearly ready for traffic.

Warren Flatau, spokeman for the Federal Railroad Association said Friday that the FRA will investigate both the derailment and the death, even though the worker killed was not a railroad employee.

The original accident occurred Wednesday along the CSX railroad tracks northeast of Old Suman Road in rural Jackson Township south of U.S. 6. The rail tracks run along a raised rail bed with a steep drop-off into a swampy area at the derailment site.

Michael Bowling, 43, of Dyer, was directing crane operations at the site of the derailment Thursday when a crane toppled onto him killing him. Bowling was overseeing the clearing of rail cars and containers when one crane became unstable and fell on him. Bowling was a an employee of Cranemasters, the crane's owners with offices in Hammond, who were contracted by CSX to clear the derailment scene.

The FRA investigates a wide range of railroad accidents, including those in which railroad or contracted employees are killed.

According to the FRA, the federal investigation will include inspections of the tracks, signal system, locomotives, rail cars and other equipment. Investigators will interview railroad employees and eyewitnesses, review railroad records and retrieve and study data from the locomotives' event recorders.

CSX also will investigate the crash. Both the railroad and FRA said results of the investigation will not be made public for several months.