Train Derails and Destroys New Ford F-150 Pickup Trucks

Here come the jokes about Ford cars and trucks being found on the side of the road or something.

Getting a new car or truck has been hard enough, but it may be a little harder to get a Ford pickup in some areas. The F-150 is the best-selling truck in the United States – for good reason – but a combination of the semiconductor chip shortage and high demand have made it next to impossible to get yourself into a new vehicle. If you look around at new car lots, they’re either empty or plush with used cars, so a train derailing and destroying several new trucks wasn’t good news for Ford dealers.

As a result of the chip shortage, Ford has been storing incomplete 2021 Ford F-150 trucks in the Detroit area. Fortunately, the blue oval recently took a large shipment of chips, allowing them to send the trucks on their way to dealers. Unfortunately, the trucks made it a mere 570 miles from Detroit before a train carrying a host of new vehicles, including 2021 F-150 pickups, derailed in Huntington, Missouri, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Ford global manufacturing and labor communications manager, Kelli Felker, responded to the press, letting them know they’re aware of the incident and that they’re assessing the situation. Felker did not disclose which vehicles were affected except the F-150 pickups. They also didn’t comment on how many vehicles were impacted by the derailing. Pictures, though, paint a pretty clear picture of how many cars could be affected – it’s substantial.

An estimated 33 boxcars derailed in a region of Missouri that sits 100 miles west of St. Louis. Officials are still looking for the cause of the derailment, which is currently unknown. The cleanup took several days and caused significant delays for rail customers. As for the precious cargo, authorities describe it as a “total loss.”

The incident is another in a long line of unfortunate events plaguing Ford and the auto industry as a whole. If there is a silver lining for it all, Ford CEO, Jim Farley, described the chip problem affecting the industry is slowly improving. Other Ford executives believe this will be the norm through 2022. With light at the end of the tunnel, we hope no other incidents like this occur and put even more stress on automakers.