What if it Happened Here? A look at the worst case scenario for the Feb. 25 oil train derailment in Kingston
March 21, 2014
Riverkeeper Team
Cartographer: Christopher Bride
A 97-car CSX train carrying empty oil tank cars derailed Feb. 25 near shops and homes in the Town of Ulster, N.Y., about five miles north of Kingston, underscoring the very real dangers posed by the new crude-by-rail “virtual pipeline.”
The train came off the tracks but remained upright en route to Chicago from a refinery in the Philadelphia area, the latest in a steady string of accidents by oil shippers in recent months.Yet again, the risk was demonstrated to the many Hudson Valley communities through which the oil trains move.
Other, similar close calls are being reported all too regularly in New York state. The Ulster mishap was the third significant derailment of an oil train in New York in as many months, also including a collision between a truck and train in West Nyack on Dec. 6, 2013, and the derailment of an oil train at a switch yard near Buffalo just four days later. A fourth, most recent derailment occurred Feb. 28 in Selkirk, N.Y.
This latest accident came on the same day that the state announced it had conducted an “inspection blitz” uncovering numerous maintenance issues at rail yards across New York state. Initial results from the "blitz" uncovered, in one instance, some 36 deficiencies present in a two-mile section of track.
Additionally, the state Department of Transportation announced last week it had fined CSX $10,000 for failing to report the accident within 1 hour, as required by law.
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