EDITORIAL: No answers on derailment, other mishaps only leads to more questions
Jun. 17—Late last month,
a train derailed
near tiny Lancaster, Minnesota. Photos from the Lancaster Fire Department — a volunteer outfit that arrived shortly after the cars jumped the track — showed a tangled mess of box cars and tankers in the ditch near U.S. Highway 59.
Altogether, more than 20 cars came off the tracks; some carried hazardous material, according to a statement from the Lancaster Fire Department, published on social media.
"The (hazardous material) stayed confined within the cars. No injuries have been reported, and we are all home safe for the evening," the department's post said.
It's good that the Lancaster Fire Department got there early to have a look. As volunteer firemen, it's safe to assume they have a great interest in the wellbeing of local residents and the environment.
Were others allowed nearby to get a look? Not necessarily.
The day after the derailment, the Grand Forks Herald sought permission to get beyond roadblocks that were set up far from the incident. The newspaper was denied access; officials told us that although there were no leaks of hazardous materials, it was still unsafe — although Canadian Pacific Kansas City officials apparently were accompanying elected leaders' staff members to a staging area closer to the site.
That lack of true openness only adds to the questions that inevitably come after certain incidents — train derailments, breached oil pipes and chemical spills, for instance. Early reports often paint them as minor, almost commonplace. Sometimes, those early reports just don't stand up.
Consider the 2019 oil spill near Edinburg, in extreme northeast North Dakota. Initially, it was reported by officials that the spill — which occurred when a pipeline leaked — covered about a half an acre. Later, it was learned the spill affected nearly 5 acres.
In Lancaster, 13 of the derailed cars were carrying hazardous materials, but none leaked, according to official reports. Cleanup would take 10 or more days, CPKC declared.
But the Herald reported earlier this week that Highway 59 — the roadway that runs adjacent to the track — is still closed as cleanup continues.
It's been more than two weeks.
When the Herald reached out to CPKC regarding the delay, a number of questions went unanswered, including the timeline of the investigation, the parties involved in the investigation, the length of the train and the reasons for cleanup taking longer than initially expected.
Without those answers, the Herald reached out to Tom Steinbrenner, a vice general chairman for the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and a former employee of CPKC. He now represents workers who build and maintain tracks and other structures for railroads.
He said train companies are "behind catastrophes now instead of ahead of them." It's now a "defensive culture," he said.
We're no experts in infrastructure concerns or train companies, but judging from our own experience, the description of a "defensive culture" seems apt.
And it does not build confidence among the people who are left in the aftermath of train derailments, chemical spills and other mishaps made by companies whose mistakes put the general public at risk.
