(The following editorial appeared on the News Enterprise website on April 10.)
ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. — For Kentucky communities along CSX railroad tracks, the Federal Railroad Administration’s investigation into the corporation’s safety compliance must be disturbing. More than 3,500 defects were documented during the FRA’s inspection in January. Inspectors recommended that CSX be fined for at least 199 violations identified during the four-day probe.
When releasing the agency’s report, FRA Administrator Joseph Boardman noted that inspectors “identified problems in every area of the company’s safety performance, including track, hazardous materials and on-track equipment.”
He went on to say that CSX “is still not doing enough to make safety a top priority.”
The investigation was launched following a series of CSX rail accidents in upstate New York, Maryland, Ohio and three here in Kentucky in January alone.
Shortly after passing through our area on the morning of Jan. 16, a CSX train derailed about 30 miles north of Elizabethtown and burst into flames. Nearby homes were evacuated, traffic was shut down along Interstate 65 and plumes of thick black toxic smoke covered the countryside for several days as at least eight chemical tankers of the 80-car train burned. Although several were hospitalized after breathing the smoke, fortunately no one was killed as a result of this rail accident.
CSX officials determined a broken bolt on the 18th car caused the train to jump track at a curve along the tracks at Brooks.
Michael Ward, CSX chairman and CEO, has pledged his company will move quickly to resolve its safety issues. To its credit, the company reduced accidents in 2006 by 24 percent. It also has been aggressive in addressing many of the problems documented in the FRA’s investigation.
According to statistics provided on the company’s official Web site, CSX operates 1,700 miles of track across 2,000 crossing grades in Kentucky.
Hauling an average of 65,000 chemical tankers and material freight cars across these lines each year gives evidence to the potential for rail disaster and how quickly life could change for our community.
Considering these facts, CSX must be as complete as it is aggressive in resolving its safety problems. And completeness must include all its rail property across Kentucky.