(The following column by Gary Martin appeared on the San Antonio Express-News website on April 4.)
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Sometimes, Washington works at glacial speed.
The Federal Railroad Administration proposed new safety regulations this week in response to several fatal rail accidents — including one outside San Antonio four years ago.
There was urgency in the voice of Joseph Boardman, the federal railroad administrator, who announced the $350 million initiative to replace aging tank cars that carry hazardous material, and set maximum speeds for trains hauling the material.
“All life is precious,” Boardman told reporters. “We want to reduce the number of lives that are lost.”
The action was applauded by Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, and Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, who first called on the FRA in 2004 to conduct a sweeping review of Union Pacific operations in South Texas after the fatal accident.
Four years ago, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, arranged a meeting with local leaders, including Wolff and then-San Antonio Mayor Ed Garza, with Transportation Department and FRA officials to discuss the accident.
But the acting FRA Administrator, Betty Monro, dodged the meeting and the San Antonio leaders.
At the time, Monro was under public scrutiny for her relationship with Mary McAuliffe, Union Pacific’s chief lobbyist in Washington.
The two were good friends, and vacationed together.
Gonzalez publicly questioned the cozy relationship between the regulator and the railroad lobbyist.
Wolff did, too.
“We raised a lot of hell,” Wolff said.
Monro stepped down in 2004.
And the FRA finally launched an investigation into the cause of two accidents involving Union Pacific trains in San Antonio.
The first occurred in May 2004, when a train derailed near Brackenridge High School, spilling 56,000 gallons of diesel fuel into the San Antonio River.
One month later, the collision between two trains near Macdona, just southwest of San Antonio, punctured a tank car that released chlorine gas. Three residents near the accident died, as well as a train conductor.
In those cases, the FRA cited fatigue of train workers who failed to observe and obey track signals.
Gonzalez wasn’t satisfied and accused the federal regulatory agency of being lax in its enforcement of safety rules, a harge that was difficult to deny because of Monro’s relationship with the Union Pacific lobbyist.
The charge of lax enforcement by the agency was underscored later that year when yet another train derailed in San Antonio in November, killing a 39-year-old office worker and spilling 200 gallons of diesel fuel.
A year later, nine people died in Graniteville, S.C., when 90 tons of chlorine gas was released after a train accident there.
Boardman said the fatal accidents in South Carolina and Texas, as well as another in Minot, N.D., prompted new rules on tank cars announced this week.
Chemical companies and other firms that own the tank cars that are used to transport hazardous materials must phase out current models and purchase new ones built with materials to better withstand punctures.
The railroad administrator also set a maximum speed limit of 50 mph for trains hauling tank cars with hazardous materials.
Public hearings are expected to begin next month, and Boardman said he hopes the new rules would be implemented by the end of the year.
“It’s good the FRA is acting,”Gonzalez said.
“I know the administrator, Boardman, promised to be more aggressive.”
Following the San Antonio derailments, the National Transportation Safety Board launched its own probe.
It later recommended a rotation of personnel to cut down on fatigue among conductors and crew.
Last year, Boardman announced that the FRA would regulate worker hours of service and provide greater focus on risk reduction to improve safety.
Congress approved the new rules in legislation.
Those new rules on worker hours of service replace laws that have been on the books since 1907.
That was a century ago.