Montana’s oversight of railroad safety falls short at a time when volatile crude oil train traffic from the Bakken region, already high, is only expected to increase, a new audit found.
Montana has no active rail safety plan and employs only two inspectors to cover the vast state, the Montana Legislative Audit Division report released Wednesday said. In addition, there is a lack of statewide emergency planning and hazardous-material response capability should an oil spill occur, the report found.
That’s a potentially precarious situation with a new crude oil transfer station in North Dakota coming online that should boost oil traffic crossing Montana from about 10 trains a week to up to 15 cars per week. One out of every five Montanans lives in an evacuation zone for an oil-train derailment, which is within a half-mile of a rail line, the report said.
Read more from ABC News.
Related News
- Colorado Transit Worker Safety Bill (House Bill 25-1290)
- Chairman Pauli Announces Retirement, SMART-TD celebrates his career
- New Mexico Local 1687 sets new precedent with Red Apple Transit
- Tentative Agreement Reached With TransitAmerica Services (TASI)
- New CSX conductor improvises to save a life
- SMART News: Protecting Railroad Retirees’ Future
- More Than a Story: SMART-TD’s Women’s History Month Highlights Legacies in the Making
- Tentative Agreement Reached in Boston
- Assembly, No. 1672
- Historic short-line agreement proves workers are stronger with SMART-TD at their side