Oil and Railroad Accidents

Posted in Oil Refinery Law on June 22, 2015

Fracking in the USA has boosted our county’s oil production to near-record levels. Especially here in Texas, where oil production is booming, news of the oil industry hits close to home. We hear about oil refinery explosions, fires, and accidents. We know the risks of being an oil field worker. Now, the Obama administration is stepping in to address another safety concern related to the oil boom: oil train explosions.

Train shipments of crude oil in the U.S. have skyrocketed in recent years, jumping from 29,605 cars in 2010 to a whopping 493,126 cars in 2014. Unfortunately, the number of accidents involving trains hauling crude has increased as well. Since 2013, there have been over 20 accidents in the U.S. alone. While no one in the U.S. has died as a result of these accidents, the railroad industry and U.S. regulators agreed that this has been due to sheer luck and that it is only a matter of time before human lives are lost as a result of these fiery explosions, like the 47 people in Canada who lost their lives as a result of a tank train crash in 2013.

The Obama administration has imposed new safety rules for oil trains to prevent derailments and to decrease the chances of a fire if cars do derail. The rules will require stronger tank cars, updated braking systems, speed limits, and improved classification of the flammability of train car contents. Trains that have not had electronically controlled brakes installed are required to stay under 30 mph when hauling multiple tank cars. Of course, these new rules are going to be costly, but some experts argue that these new rules are still not enough.

The railroad industry stated that their goal is to have zero accidents going forward, but within days of the new rules being announced, a train hauling 109 cars derailed in North Dakota. 10 of the cars caught fire. No one was hurt, but local residents had to be evacuated from their homes.

Read the original article here.