(Canada.com posted the following Canadian Press article by on March 2.)
FARGO, N.D. — The Minot Rural Fire Department says the Canadian Pacific Railway failed to properly inspect and maintain the track where a derailment spilled deadly anhydrous ammonia last winter.
Canadian Pacific says scientific tests find no definitive cause for the wreck. The company also says the failure of a joint bar connecting two pieces of rail could not have been prevented. The reports from the fire department and the company are among documents being considered by the National Transportation Safety Board, which continues to investigate the Jan. 18, 2002, derailment outside Minot.
More than 950,000 litres of anhydrous ammonia spilled from shattered tanker cars, sending a toxic plume over the city and surrounding area. One person was killed, and medical officials said more than 1,000 people sought treatment for burns, breathing problems and other physical and mental ailments.
A final NTSB report on the derailment is due in late spring or early summer.
“The heart of the problem rests with CP’s failure to adequately train the individuals who actually service the track,” the fire department said.
The department said Canadian Pacific failed to meet maintenance and inspection standards set by the company and the Federal Railroad Administration. “These failures led to and caused the derailment,” the fire department said.
The report is “just one of many, many bits of information they (NTSB officials) have to consider,” said Minot Rural Fire Chief Bob Wetzler.
John Bergene, a spokesman for Canadian Pacific, said he would not discuss specifics of the derailment until the NTSB report is finished.
Ted Turpin, the NTSB’s lead investigator in the case, said he could not comment on details of the investigation.
The NTSB also got reports from unions representing maintenance and train crews, a tank car manufacturer and the Railway Progress Institute, a trade association.
The fire department said the rail at the derailment site should have been welded. It also said understaffing at the Federal Railroad Administration was one reason why Canadian Pacific’s track safety standards were not reviewed before the derailment.
In their report, Canadian Pacific officials said a temporary joint like the one at the derailment site can “safely support train traffic for many years” with proper maintenance.
The company also said poor work or defective steel in the ruptured tank cars may have caused the catastrophic chemical release.
The report by the Railway Progress Institute said tank car failure like that seen in Minot is rare. While improved steel may help keep cars from shattering, the institute report said, railways must inspect tracks frequently and fix any problems immediately.
The tank car maker, GATX Rail, said the tank cars in the Minot derailment were subject to “forces on a massive scale rarely, if ever, seen before.”
The NTSB continues to do laboratory tests of tank car pieces collected from the wreck scene, Turpin said.