(The Associated Press circulated the following article by Michael Virtanen on March 14.)
NEW YORK — With data showing 572 upstate rail accidents in the past seven years have caused $34 million in damage, Sen. Charles Schumer called Wednesday for a joint federal probe of recent crashes by CSX freight trains, including Monday’s blaze of fuel tankers in Oneida.
It was the fifth derailment involving CSX Corp. in New York since December, which had prompted U.S. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Schumer to immediately urge a federal investigation into railroad safety across the state. National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived Tuesday at the crash site 20 miles east of Syracuse.
On Wednesday, Schumer issued the report citing 23 other rail accidents in five counties of central New York from 2000 to 2006 that caused $2.3 million in damage, even higher totals in most other regions, and called for a joint investigation by the NTSB, Federal Railroad Administration and Department of Homeland Security.
“Lately we’ve had an accident almost every other week around the state,” Schumer said. “Enough is enough.”
Spokesmen for CSX and the Federal Railroad Administration responded that safety records have improved statewide and nationally last year and for the company both last year and so far this year.
“We’re not happy with any accident. We’re certainly not happy with the fact we’ve had certain high-profile incidents this year,” CSX spokesman Robert Sullivan said. The company already cooperates with all three federal agencies, he said.
The 80-car freight train was traveling east from Buffalo to the Albany area Monday morning when 28 cars jumped the tracks. Eight 80,000-gallon tanker cars containing flammable substances including propane caught fire.
That forced the temporary evacuation of thousands of residents and closure of the schools and the Thruway after the giant fireballs rose in the sky. No deaths or injuries were reported.
The cleanup continued Wednesday, with eight families still kept from their homes within a half-mile radius, Madison County Fire Coordinator Joe DeFrancisco said. “We’re still burning off propane from some of the tank cars that have remaining product. They’re uplifting cars and moving them out.”
One car contained ferric chloride, a mild acid, and some leaked and requires special cleanup, DeFrancisco said. There were no toxic chemicals in the cars, he said.
The cause of the derailment and a timetable for reopening the track haven’t been determined yet, Sullivan said Wednesday. Air quality monitoring is continuing with no toxic fumes detected, he said.
Schumer said his big fear is railroad tank cars carrying toxic materials like chlorine breaking open in populated areas. He has co-authored legislation, pending in the Senate Commerce Committee, that would raise fines for safety violations and set age limits on cars carrying hazardous materials. He also requested committee hearings on rail safety.
“To date CSX and other rail companies have gotten off with just a slap on the wrist,” Schumer said. “Unfortunately, the previous Congress failed to address these issues and let the railroads run the show and we have seen the results.”
Of the 572 accidents, 302 involved CSX trains, the main freight carrier which owns many of the tracks in New York, Schumer spokesman Josh Vlasto said.
“We’ve got to find out what CSX is doing wrong,” Schumer said, but he stopped short of calling for a shutdown of the national rail carrier’s system in New York. “It should be fully inspected. I think shutting it down would cause much too much economic hardship.”
CSX’s response was to investigate each accident and try to ensure it wasn’t repeated, as well as ongoing training, and spending on infrastructure that reached $1.4 billion last year, Sullivan said.
“Last year, I believe, we had reduction in train accidents of 24 percent, and so far this year vs. last year we have a reduction of 28 percent,” he said.
U.S. Department of Transportation data show total train accidents across the country declined for the second year in a row last year, falling from 3,236 in 2005 to 2,834 in 2006. The number of accidents fell from 105 to 89 in New York state.
The Federal Railroad Administration has proposed legislation that would give the agency authority to regulate railroad employee hours now set by statute, improve rail grade crossing safety and set new risk reduction programs, spokesman Steven Kulm said. The agency has proposed a rule that would double most fines and it has accelerated research into tank car structural integrity, he said.
Citing FRA data, Schumer’s office cited 142 rail accidents in the Hudson Valley from Westchester to Greene counties, causing $5.8 million in damage in 2000-2006, as well as 148 accidents in the eight counties of the greater Albany area and $7.7 million in damage over the same seven years.
Other 2000-2006 data showed 187 accidents for $8.5 million damage in western New York; 27 accidents, $3.5 million damage, Rochester-Finger Lakes region; 17 accidents, $4.3 million, North Country; 28 accidents, $1.7 million, Southern Tier.