The following article, dated June 3, 2016, was published on the Associated Press website. It lists 14 devastating accidents involving oil trains occurring from July 2013 to June 2016. It is being posted here to remind the supporters of SWLRT of the life-threatening possibilities right here in our own back yard if SWLRT is routed on the Kenilworth Trail. Accidents involving oil trains along the Kenilworth trail would likely be even more devastating because of the proximity to the light rail electrical lines. And the devastation would likely include fatalities because of the proximity to residences.
Arlene Fried
Co-founder of Park Watch
www.mplsparkwatch.org
A Timeline of Recent Oil Train Crashes in the US and Canada
In this Dec. 30, 2013 file photo, a fireball goes up at the site of an oil train derailment…
The derailment of an oil train in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge follows a string of fiery accidents in the U.S. and Canada as shipments of crude by rail have increased with more domestic oil production:
— July 5, 2013: A runaway Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway train that had been left unattended derailed, spilling oil and catching fire inside the town of Lac-Megantic in Quebec. Forty-seven people were killed and 30 buildings burned in the town’s center. About 1.6 million gallons of oil was spilled. The oil was being transported from the Bakken region of North Dakota, the heart of an oil fracking boom, to a refinery in Canada.
— Nov. 8, 2013: An oil train from North Dakota derailed and exploded near Aliceville, Alabama. There were no deaths, but an estimated 749,000 gallons of oil spilled from 26 tanker cars.
— Dec. 30, 2013: A fire engulfed tank cars loaded with oil on a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train after a collision about a mile from Casselton, North Dakota. No one was injured, but more than 2,000 residents were evacuated as emergency responders struggled with the intense fire.
