(The following article by David Patch was posted on the Toledo Blade website on January 19.)
TOLEDO, Ohio — For more than four decades, Shirley Carpenter has watched the trains rumble past her home on Airline Avenue in South Toledo, maybe 100 feet from her front door.
Even before a train crash Jan. 6 in South Carolina caused a chlorine leak that killed nine people, she occasionally worried that a terrorist might take interest in the tank cars of flammable or poisonous chemicals that roll by on many of the trains. But the accident, she said, really gave her pause to think about a danger that might be more of a threat.
“That could have been us. I’m sure everybody on the street thought that,” said Mrs. Carpenter, who added that with the tracks so close, her or her husband’s chances of fleeing in time might not be so good.
Area emergency management officials agree that wherever hazardous materials are moved, there’s a chance for an accident. And with northwest Ohio being a busy rail crossroads, many dangerous shipments move through Toledo and nearby communities every day, some of which are produced by the region’s refineries and chemical plants or consumed by its heavy industry.
One critical difference between the track in the South Carolina crash and most of the busiest tracks in the Toledo area – including the track that runs near Mrs. Carpenter’s house – is that the tracks here have signal systems that would alert a train’s crew about a track problem, such as the misaligned switch in the South Carolina accident.
But not all of the tracks used by hazardous-materials trains in the region have signals. Most notably, a line from Arcadia to Lima, Ohio, that Norfolk Southern uses to haul hazardous cargo has no signals except where it crosses or joins other rail lines. The track goes through Findlay and several smaller communities in Hancock and Allen counties, and closely follows I-75 most of the way.
However, that track also differs from the South Carolina line in a way that Gary Valentine, director of the Hancock County Emergency Management Agency, said is critical: There aren’t very many trains on it. Except for the train that runs to Lima six days a week to pick up the chemical cars and nonhazardous shipments, it’s rare for Norfolk Southern to have any other trains using the line. That substantially reduces the chances of a collision.
Though “somewhat concerned about railroad safety in general,” Mr. Valentine said he’s not “super upset” about the risk posed by the unsignaled track through Findlay. An accident, he said, “could happen any time, any place.”
Tom Barnhizer, deputy director of the Lucas County Emergency Management Agency, agreed. “You never know where something might happen. Yes, it could happen here, but there are lots of ways it could occur,” he said.
Both the presence of signals on most of the area’s busiest lines and sections of track that Mr. Barnhizer said seem to be in generally good repair are among the reasons he ranks train crashes as a lower risk than truck accidents for causing chemical hazards in Lucas County.
Rob Marvin, director of the transportation department at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, said that in general, a collision like the one in South Carolina is unlikely here because most main tracks have signal systems.
“There is very little ‘dark territory’ in Ohio anymore,” said Mr. Marvin, whose agency is charged with overseeing rail safety.
In the South Carolina accident, a misaligned track switch is suspected to be the reason a main-line freight train ran onto a side track and collided with an unoccupied local freight train. The wreck caused two tank cars containing chlorine to rupture, releasing a poisonous vapor cloud.
Last week, the Federal Railroad Administration issued an advisory to the industry urging railroads to maintain documents showing when such switches are changed to the side-track position and when they are restored to normal, and to be sure that train crews are instructed to advise dispatchers when such switch changes occur.
Rudy Husband, a Norfolk Southern spokesman, said the advisory departs from Norfolk Southern’s company policy only to the extent that the FRA is telling train crews to create a paper record of switch changes.
Gary Sease, a spokesman for CSX Transportation, said that company is reviewing the advisory to determine if any changes in its practices are needed.
Citing security concerns since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, railroad officials won’t discuss specific commodity traffic patterns. But cars containing hazardous and flammable materials aren’t too hard to spot with their diamond-shaped placards – usually in the upper right corner of each car – identifying such cargoes as sulfuric acid, chlorine, sodium hydroxide, and anhydrous ammonia.
In high concentrations, certain cargoes – notably poisonous gases like chlorine and hydrogen cyanide, both regulars on trains in northwest Ohio – kill those exposed to them almost immediately. Others, like sodium hydroxide and molten sulfur, only become dangerous if they catch fire.
But emergency crews responding to a train wreck must be careful because certain chemicals, like sulfuric acid, become most dangerous if mixed with water.
Mr. Barnhizer said his office rates trucks as bigger chemical risks than trains because there is a greater number of individual cargo movements on the highways, even though trains often carry chemicals that are more dangerous than those hauled by trucks.
Hazardous materials transport by rail is “one of the safest modes there is,” said Kelly Hedglin, a hazardous materials specialist with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
“Any hazardous material, when transported properly, is no threat,” Ms. Hedglin said. “There are a lot of rules governing transport of hazardous materials, and more often that not, it is done in a very safe manner.”
The pressurized cars used to ship chlorine, liquefied petroleum gas, and anhydrous ammonia have steel walls an inch thick, and their valves are located on the tops of the tankers in housings to protect them from damage in minor derailments, Ms. Hedglin said. But she and others agreed that it would be very difficult to make a tank car that was impervious to damage in a severe crash.
Hazardous chemicals are ingredients or intermediates in the manufacture of many common products, including plastics, synthetic rubber, fuels, and pharmaceuticals. Mr. Barnhizer noted that Lucas County has two major petroleum refineries and more than 100 other companies where extremely hazardous substances are handled.
“Chemicals are a valuable part of our community,” he said.
The Association of American Railroads, a trade organization, last week issued a statement asserting that rail transport of hazardous materials is “16 times safer than truck.”
According to the AAR statement, only 1 in 500,000 hazardous materials shipments is accidentally released in train accidents.
And while there were 10 deaths associated with hazardous rail cargo between 1981 and 2004, truck accidents during that time killed 274.