(The following story by Howard Weiss-Tisman appeared on the Brattleboro Reformer website on February 2.)
ROCKINGHAM, Vt. — Municipal Manager Shane O’Keefe will meet with representatives from the Vermont Agency of Transportation and New England Central Railroad (NECR) to try and get some answers about last month’s train derailment in Bellows Falls.
O’Keefe said he asked for the meeting to try and get a clearer picture of the protocol for reporting train accidents. He also said he has been in contact with at least one of the local Vermont legislators on the issue.
“It would be nice to get some clarity on what steps they take,” O’Keefe said. “Who do they call?” he asked. “I don’t know who they call.”
O’Keefe said he did not yet know when the meeting would take place.
The Selectboard at Tuesday night’s meeting discussed the derailment and expressed concern over the amount of time that passed before local emergency officials were notified.
The Bellows Falls Police and Fire departments were not contacted until nearly four hours after the accident.
There were no injuries or hazardous materials released at the accident site, but Selectboard members said on Tuesday that there has to be a better system of reporting accidents to local officials.
The accident happened early in the morning on Sunday, Jan. 16, and no local residents reported it.
“There have to be statewide rules to protect local communities,” Selectboard member Leslie Goldman said. “We need to figure out what makes sense.”
The accident in Bellows Falls happened less than a week after a train in Graniteville, S.C., hit a parked train and released a deadly cloud of chlorine gas. Nine people died and hundreds were hospitalized.
“We got lucky,” O’Keefe said about the relatively slight impact to Bellows Falls.
Railroad companies do not have to call local authorities unless there is substantial property damage or injury.
A number of Selectboard members said it made no sense to not contact local authorities. The Bellows Falls accident occurred near a building that read, “Chemco,” and board members said there was no way for the train engineers to know what they had hit.
Selectboard Chairman Lamont Barnett said he understood that it would not make sense to ask the train company to report all of the materials that the cars carry, but he said if an accident occurs and local property is damaged there must be a way to let local authorities know.
“When property is damaged outside of their right-of-way it has to be reported,” he said. “It’s got to be a crime to not report that.”
The accident is still under investigation. The cars were carrying wood products. The train left the track near Granger Street for an unknown reason and struck a building.