Posted on 03/05/2015 3:27:05 PM PST by ConservativeInPA
(Reuters) - A BNSF Railway [BNISF.UL] train loaded with crude oil derailed on Thursday afternoon in a rural area south of Galena, Illinois, with two of the tank cars catching fire, according to local officials and the company.
The incident marks the latest in a series of derailments involving trains hauling crude oil, a trend that has put a heightened focus on rail safety.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Either global warming, Bushes fault or Terrorists making work.
You must wait until several dozen people are killed by an oil train derailment. Then maybe “someone” will, may, could, we hope WAKE THE HELL UP. I point out those trains go right through the middle of cities and towns.
These long oil trains are, beyond doubt, an unmitigated catastrophe just waiting to happen.
When it does, the media will cover a huge rise in temperature of one half degree as further evidence of globull warming.
“WHAT OIL WRECK?”
Well thank goodness we’re going to have the Keystone Pipeline to stop this sort of disaster .... oh wait.
But Warren Buffet doesn’t profit.
Some of them burn, others release vapors which are caustic or deadly, still others require contact. Some can even interact spectacularly.
So is the cargo the problem?
Well, there is one heck of a lot of oil transported in this country daily by rail. We have probably heard about every accident involving a fire, much like spectacular car crashes.
We don't hear much about the boxcar load of toilet paper that rolls over, or the tank car full of milk, so, I'm guessing there is an if it bleeds it leads, but if it burns it gets first place sort of phenomenon going on here.
Let's look at the wrecks. Lac Megantic, where a few dozen people did get killed: cause was an unattended train on a grade had a fire in the engine which was left idling to maintain brake pressure. THat engine was shut down and the pressure in the brake system bled down, and the train freewheeled down grade some distance into town with catastrophic results.
Procedural failure.
Casselton ND: oil hauling train struck derailed grain cars and in turn derailed, with fire.
Failure to stop the train before encountering blocked tracks.
PA: derailment.
Virginia: derailment.
West Virginia: derailment.
I think I'm seeing a pattern, here.
If the trains stay on the tracks, they seem to get where they are going safely (The one in Lac Megantic derailed, too).
If not, there may be a problem.
Maybe the problem isn't the cargo, or the trains, so much as the tracks they are running on.
When you consider all the potentially hazardous and even combustible products which move by rail, it's funny that we seldom hear of any of the other products being involved in a train wreck. Either the amount of oil being transported is orders of magnitude greater so it is more often involved in train wrecks (a possibility), certain areas have bad tracks but we aren't hearing about the other wrecks, or maybe someone is targeting oil trains.
After all, oil is an industry which has been in the administration's cross hairs from day one.
If the Republicans in DC had any desire to get enough votes to override Keystone, it wouldn't have been difficult. US Senators would have a hard time not supporting Keystone if it had been put on them for allowing these horrific rail explosions to occur.
OF COURSE oil should be transported by pipeline instead of highways or rail....DUHHH!!!!
Ah, but the Trans-Canada XL pipeline will not be owned by Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet).
Beyond disgusted.
Some republicans get it. I’ve talked to Wayne Bradley who is the GOP African American outreach director in Detroit. He talks about the danger posed pretty often.
The lac Magnetic tank cars derailed and crashed into each other. I think about 50 died.
Yeah, I know, “derailments are common.” Still...
Have you heard of Lac-Mégantic?
Ha! Pipeline would be safer.
It derailed because it was left with insufficient handbrakes and no one to keep an eye on it. After it caught fire, the the fireman turned the engine off, loosing the air brakes and it coasted downhill until it couldn't make a turn.
The cause wasn't the condition of the rails, but the lack of care given in handling hazardous cargo.s
The locomotives made it around the curves. The loaded tank cars didn’t. Some got ruptured and others bleved.
Right. It was a procedural problem the railroad had.
My point in all of that was basically, that absent malice, which has not yet been indicated, either practices or roadbed conditions appear to be the major problems. Without failures on the part of warning and other systems, and without apparent track issues, an incredible amount of oil gets shipped safely every day.
The media don't focus on that, because it isn't sensational enough to be news.
Similarly, we hear about the relatively few plane crashes that happen, not the safe landings.
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