(The following story by Rob Juteau appeared on the Evening Times website on March 15.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After Monday’s freight train derailment in the city of Oneida that sent fireballs into the sky and forced the shutdown of schools, roads and communities for miles around, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, D – NY, Wednesday called for the creation of a new National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Railroad Administration and Department of Homeland Security task force to investigate the cause of the accident, as well as the repeated incidents involving CSX freight trains across upstate New York.
Monday’s derailment was the fifth involving CSX in New York since December, which had prompted Schumer and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to immediately urge a federal investigation into railroad safety across the state. National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived at the crash site Tuesday. On Wednesday, Schumer issued a report citing 23 other rail accidents in five counties of Central New York from 2000 to 2006. Those 23 rail accidents included four each in Herkimer and Montgomery counties and caused $2.3 million in damage.
“Lately we’ve had an accident almost every other week around the state,” Schumer said during a telephone conference call with reporters. “Enough is enough. For far too long, CSX has failed to prevent these incidents and protect upstate New York communities from recurring accidents. Federal regulators have not done nearly enough to crack down on the rail companies after accidents to improve and secure the rail infrastructure across the state. The task force would have the sole focus of getting to the root cause of these accidents to ensure that CSX is taking all necessary steps to avoid a catastrophe. Unfortunately, CSX’s track record this year may have put us collision course for disaster.”
The senator added that Monday’s accident was just one in a series of dozens of accidents, derailments and fatal crashes that CSX has been involved in across upstate New York. The most recent accident occurred when a CSX train traveling from Buffalo to the CSX rail yard in Selkirk derailed, igniting liquid propane tanks that created explosions that lit the dawn sky. There were 80 cars on the freight train, including 40 propane cars and two containing non-toxic inhalant hazardous material. Twenty-eight of the 80 cars jumped the tracks.
Schumer said that had the train derailed earlier — it passed through downtown Syracuse shortly before the accident — the explosion could have been devastating and chemicals could have been spewed throughout the heavily populated area. The crash forced the evacuation of hundreds in the community, closed schools and shut down a large section of the Thruway, leading to back-ups throughout Central New York.
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 not happy with the fact we’ve had certain high-profile incidents this year,” CSX spokesman Robert Sullivan told the Associated Press, adding the company cooperates with all federal agencies.
“The train accident in Oneida and other recent major rail accidents in New York state are of great concern to me, and over the past 90-days I have directed the Federal Railroad Administration to take aggressive steps to find out what went wrong,” Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman said. “The FRA is actively conducting comprehensive accident investigations, performing a safety review of railroad bridges in western New York and scheduling one of our automated track inspection vehicles to check track across the state this spring. I have also personally met with CSX senior executives to discuss their rail safety problems and the results of a FRA focused inspection on CSX property. I am committed to taking all necessary action to determine why these accidents happened and will assess penalties against those who violated federal rail safety regulations. I have also asked the FRA regional office to expedite our investigations into CSX accidents in New York so we can use the findings to guide our next actions to prevent future accidents from occurring.”
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,” he told the Associated Press. One car contained ferric chloride, a mild acid, and some leaked and requires special cleanup.
The cause of the derailment and a timetable for reopening the track have not been determined yet, Sullivan said Wednesday.
Air quality monitoring is continuing with no toxic fumes detected.
The senator’s data showed that 572 upstate rail accidents in the past seven years have caused $34 million in damage.
“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. We’ve got to find out what CSX is doing wrong.”
CSX’s response was to investigate each accident and try to ensure it was not 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 versus last year we have a reduction of 28 percent,” he said.
U.S. Department of Transportation data shows 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.
Schumer said the new joint task force should have the sole authority to investigate the recent CSX crashes in upstate New York, determine their cause and asses whether CSX has done enough to fix any past problems and prevent future accidents. At the conclusion of the investigation, the task force would turn over any findings of negligence to the appropriate law enforcement authorities if warranted.
The senator also wrote to the chairman and ranking members of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the freight rail industry, asking for immediate hearings on freight rail safety.
Schumer is the author of the bi-partisan Rail Crossing and Hazardous Materials Transport Act, which sets tougher minimum and maximum fines for fatal accidents and establishes new requirements for investigations, inspections and the use of new safety technology. The legislation aims to crack down on negligent railroad companies and require the broader use of modern technology to protect the public from more fatal crossing and hazardous materials accidents. The bill raises the minimum civil penalty for gross negligence resulting in a fatality to $50,000 and the maximum to $10,000,000. For gross negligence not resulting in a fatality, the fine will be at least $5,000 and not more than $2,500,000.
The legislation sets strict age restrictions for cars carrying hazardous materials by requiring every car be inspected and upgraded every 15 years. In addition, all rail cars 15 years or older currently in use must be inspected and brought up to federal code within one year. The bill would also create a new infrastructure grant program that would authorize $50 million in federal funding to complete vital infrastructure improvements.