Corporate Greed (vs Safety) Strikes Again: Canadian Train Derailment
Article: Oil tank cars like those in Quebec tragedy long seen as flawed
The oil-laden train that derailed and exploded in a small Canadian town on Saturday, possibly killing as many as 50 people, included a class of railcar whose vulnerability to leaks and deadly explosions was well known to regulators.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has issued safety guidelines on the widely used, cylindrical tank cars known as DOT-111s, including a recommendation that all tank cars used to carry ethanol and crude oil be reinforced to make them more resistant to punctures if trains derail. The new guidelines, put forward in March 2012, but which have not yet been adopted by the Department of Transportation agency that oversees the sector, stem from a deadly ethanol train derailment and explosion in Illinois in 2009.
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The Association of American Railroads (AAR) previously opposed retrofitting, saying it would cost the industry "well over" $1 billion. In comparison, derailment costs totaled about $64 million over the past five years, the group said in a March 2011 letter. It said there had been one fatality and 11 injuries from the derailments in the 2004-2008 period.
The country's largest railroads made $70 billion in operating revenues in 2012, according to an AAR estimate."
Source: Reuters Canada