(The following article by Christine Girardin was posted on the Daytona Beach News-Journal website on January 14.)
DELAND, Fla. — The rumble of a freight train in the distance is a sound that hearkens back to simpler times, but in today’s high-tech world these nostalgic iron beasts can be deadly.
Chlorine, ammonia and fertilizers — all potentially deadly — are hauled daily through Volusia and Flagler counties, and across the country.
The grim realities of transporting such cargo swept into the national spotlight last week almost as rapidly as the chlorine gas cloud that killed eight people when a freight train derailed in Graniteville, S.C.
Although an accident exactly like the one in Graniteville is unlikely to happen here, railroad industry officials say, there’s still plenty of opportunities for a hazardous-materials spill on area tracks.
“We’ve had several occurrences where we’ve had some chemicals leak but the nature of the chemicals weren’t dangerous,” said Jim Ryan, Volusia County Emergency Management director.
There are two freight train companies transporting chemicals through Volusia and Flagler, Florida East Coast Railway and CSX.
Citing security concerns, CSX spokeswoman Meg Scheu refused to identify what chemicals that company most commonly transports here. But FEC spokesman Husein Cumber said the company transports chlorine, the same liquefied gas that escaped from the train derailed last week in Graniteville.
Husein said automatic train control systems used on tracks in Volusia and Flagler would prevent an accident like the one that proved so deadly last week.
Federal investigators suspect that a track switch left in the wrong position caused the Norfolk Southern crash, in which a 42-car freight train ran down a side track and smashed into a locomotive parked at a textile mill, according to The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C.
“That on our system would never happen,” Husein said. “Automatic train control would stop that train if it was on the wrong track.”
There hasn’t been a deadly train accident involving hazardous chemicals in Florida, on the scale of what happened in South Carolina, since 1978. That year, eight people were killed when chlorine gas escaping from a derailed train wafted across a roadway near Youngstown, in Bay County in the Panhandle.
It’s the job of local emergency officials to respond to such accidents and they get 40 hours of training on hazardous materials every year, said Nick Castelli, Volusia County Fire Services battalion commander.
The firefighters and police officers expected to contain spills usually don’t know what types of chemicals or compounds they are dealing with until arriving at the accident scene. Still, they know dangerous materials move through both counties daily.
“We train for pretty much everything. There’s over a million chemicals registered by the (Centers for Disease Control),” said Castelli, adding rail cars are supposed to be marked to identify what’s inside and train engineers carry cargo manifests so emergency responders know what type of material they contain.
But train companies aren’t required to give local officials advance notice of what they’re transporting through the community, said Warren Flatau, Federal Railroad Administration spokesman in Washington, D.C. It’s a safety precaution in case terrorists are interested in what’s onboard and also protects a rail line’s competitive edge, he said.