Fiery Ohio derailment raises railroad safety questions
The fiery derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals — sending a huge plume of smoke in the air and forcing residents of a small Ohio town to evacuate — has highlighted the potentially disastrous consequences of train accidents and raised questions about railroad safety.
The railroad industry is generally regarded as the safest option for most goods and federal data show accidents involving hazardous materials are exceedingly rare. But with rails crossing through the heart of nearly every city and town nationwide, even one hazardous materials accident could be disastrous, especially in a populated area.
Rail unions believe the industry has gotten riskier in recent years after widespread job cuts left workers spread thin.
“It raises all kinds of questions,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told “Fox & Friends” this week when he was asked whether hazardous materials are too dangerous to transport by rail.
“We’ve seen it up close and personal the last few days,” DeWine said. “This is a big, big deal.”
About half of the 4,800 residents in the eastern Ohio town of East Palestine and those in the surrounding area, including parts of Pennsylvania, had to evacuate as officials monitored air and water quality following a controlled burn of chemicals released from damaged tank cars. The evacuation order was lifted Wednesday after the air was deemed safe.
" I’m scared to go back home, " resident Brittany Dailey had said Monday. “I’m eventually going to have to go back, but it makes me want to sell my house and move at this point.”
Ian Jefferies, head of the Association of American Railroads trade group, said 99.9% of all hazardous materials shipments reach their destinations safely.
Federal Railroad Administration data showed hazardous chemicals were released during 11 train accidents nationwide last year, out of roughly 535 million miles (861 million kilometers), with only two injuries reported. In the past decade, releases of hazardous materials peaked at 20 in both 2018 and 2020.
“Railroads are the safest form of moving goods across land in the country without question,” Jefferies said. “But railroads are also working to drive toward zero incidents. Until we reach that goal, we haven’t got to where we want to be.”
Railroads try to route hazardous materials shipments on the safest path. Most of the worst derailments in recent years happened in rural areas, but in 2013 a derailment in Canada killed 47 people in the town of Lac Megantic and caused millions of dollars in damage. A 2005 derailment in Graniteville, South Carolina, killed nine people and injured more than 250 after toxic chlorine gases were released.
Hazardous materials account for about 7-8% of the 30 million shipments that railroads deliver across the country every year. But because of the way railroads mix freight together, at least a couple cars of hazardous materials can be found on nearly any train besides grain or coal trains.
“Railroads are a very safe form of transportation from a standpoint of statistics,” said professor David Clarke, who previously led the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Tennessee. “That doesn’t mean that you’re never going to have an accident. That would be unrealistic for any type of transportation to have zero accidents”
Some say that’s not enough. An East Palestine business owner and two other residents sued the rail operator in federal court on Tuesday, alleging negligence. Among other things, the lawsuit says the railroad failed to maintain and inspect its tracks and rail cars, failed to provide appropriate employee training, and failed to reasonably warn the public.
Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department coalition, said he worries the chances of a catastrophic derailment are increasing because major freight railroads have eliminated roughly one-third of their workers over the past six years. Companies have shifted to running fewer, longer trains and say they don’t need as many crews, mechanics and locomotives.
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