SMART Union
According to The Oregonian, a Union Pacific oil train traveling through the Columbia River Gorge derailed and caught fire Friday afternoon. Although no injuries were reported, local schools evacuated students and nearby state highways were shut down.
The train originated from North Dakota and was carrying the volatile Bakken crude oil to Washington state. Eleven of the 96-car train derailed almost 70 miles east of Portland, near the town of Mosier, Ore.
SMART TD Washington State Legislative Director Herb Krohn has been briefed on the accident and was dispatched to the scene. Krohn serves on the Transportation Division Rail Safety Task Force.
Click here to see pictures of the derailment from RT news.
Click here to read more from The Oregonian.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) held a board meeting (webcasted live) yesterday, detailing the probable cause of the May 2015 Amtrak train 188 derailment outside of Philadelphia.
The derailment caused eight people to lose their lives and over 200 injuries. The NTSB found that “the probable cause of the accident was the engineer’s acceleration to 106 miles per hour as he entered a curve with a 50 mile per hour speed restriction, due to his loss of situational awareness likely because his attention was diverted to an emergency situation with another train. Contributing to the accident was the lack of a positive train control (PTC) system. Contributing to the severity of the injuries was the inadequate requirements for occupant protection in the event of a train overturning.”
The NTSB also made numerous recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Amtrak, American Public Transportation Association (APTA), Association of American Railroads (AAR), Philadelphia first responders, Philadelphia’s mayor and National first responders organizations based on the accident and their findings.
The NTSB recommended to the FRA that they consider requiring railroads to install procedures where no PTC is present; modify existing regulations to include the number of crewmembers required in the cab of the locomotive and use the data regarding the number of crewmembers in the controlling cab of the train at the time of an accident to evaluate safety adequacy of current crew size regulations; and conduct research to evaluate the causes of passenger injuries and evaluate methods for mitigating those injuries such as the use of seat belts and implement any findings.
The NTSB recommended to Amtrak that they incorporate training strategies for operating crewmembers and new hires to recognize and effectively manage multiple concurrent tasks in prolonged, atypical situations.
Click here to read a summary of the NTSB’s findings.
Click here to read NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart’s opening statement.
Click here to read the presentation given by the NTSB.
Click here to read Hart’s closing statement.
Click here to view the webcast.
On Friday, April 8, Amtrak filed a lawsuit against Cimarron Crossing Feeders, LLC, claiming “gross negligence” as the alleged cause of a derailment last month that left 32 passengers injured. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found in their investigation that one of the feed company’s trucks had struck the side of the railroad trucks, shifting the alignment of the tracks. The lawsuit alleges that Cimarron Crossing Feeders failed to notify BNSF, the owner of the tracks, or Amtrak, of the damage. Click here to read more from The Hutchinson News. Click here to read SMART TD’s March 14 report on the derailment.
Read the complete story here.
Cargo included flammable liquid that ignited upon impact, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of nearby residents. Investigators noted that the fire could have been much worse.
Read the complete story here.
Click here to read the entire article.
Co-authored by Wisconsin State Sens. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) and Jerry Petrowski (R-Marathon), the bill would provide for more state rail track inspectors; require railroads to submit prevention and response plans to the state; provide training for local emergency first responders along railroad routes; and create guidelines for coordination and response timelines in the event of a derailment.
Billings introduced the bill in the wake of two derailments in Wisconsin over the past week: a BNSF Railway Co. train derailed in Alma that led to an ethanol spill, and a Canadian Pacific train that derailed in Watertown, spilling hundreds of gallons of crude oil. CP determined that a broken rail caused the incident, the Associated Press reported.
Read more from Progressive Railroading.
Click here to read the full content of the proposed legislation.
The accident occurred in the town of Northfield, about 10 miles south of Montpelier, the state capital.
A spokesperson for the Montpelier Fire Department said they had reports of four people injured so far after five cars derailed, two of which tumbled over a bank. There have been no reported deaths, the spokesperson, Lt. Dana Huoppi, said. A federal official told NBC News that none of the injuries so far appeared life-threatening.
Read more from NBC News.
MARYVILLE, Tenn. — A fire continued to burn Thursday afternoon at the site where a train car carrying hazardous material derailed and caught fire in eastern Tennessee, and officials said firefighters have been trying to keep neighboring rail cars cool as they make efforts to move them away from the flames.
At a 4:30 p.m. news conference Thursday in Maryville, Tennessee, Craig Camuso, CSX regional vice president for state government affairs, said firefighters are getting as close to the damaged 24,000-gallon tank car as they can, given the heat.
The derailment late Wednesday prompted the evacuation of thousands of people within a mile-and-a-half radius.
Read more from The Washington Post.