The derailment was caused by an overheated bearing on a railcar.
Unions are right to fear more accidents as railroads increase the length of trains and consider reducing the number of crew members from two to only one. Not to mention the absolutely horrific scheduling rules for crews that deprive them of proper rest between calls, keep th…
The derailment was caused by an overheated bearing on a railcar.
Unions are right to fear more accidents as railroads increase the length of trains and consider reducing the number of crew members from two to only one. Not to mention the absolutely horrific scheduling rules for crews that deprive them of proper rest between calls, keep them away from home for extended periods, don't allow them to even plan their own lives, and penalize them for taking needed off days.
The tank cars containing vinyl chloride evidently did not explode. The tank cars were properly designed to contain the contents in a derailment. However, the relief valves plugged as the vinyl chloride started to polymerize. There will need to be reconsideration of the proper relief devices for chemicals like VC, if the current ones in use can get plugged.
Somehow the temperature inside the VC cars started rising, and the conclusion was drawn that the VC was polymerizing inside the tank car. Then there was fear the rising temp could result in a BLEVE. This is why the decision was made to dump the contents and burn it off. A BLEVE could have leveled the town.
Shipping of VC needs to be restudied to understand how polymerization can be initiated inside the tank car and mitigation techniques developed and implemented.
Emergency braking systems need to be studied and perfected. The emergency brakes activated once the railcars came off the tracks and air hoses came apart, per the design intent, but railcars still rolled. If this design still results in additional cars coming off the rails and spilling hazardous contents, we need to go back to the drawing board to improve this system. This is the intent of the ECP brakes. Not saying that's the right answer, but it's good someone was thinking of improving what we have and coming up with options.
Vinyl chloride is nasty stuff. We need better procedures for getting rid of it in accidents such as this. Releasing it and burning it needed to be done in this case, but it produced hazardous byproducts (hydrochloric acid gas and some phosgene). We need a better way.
All in all, this incident has provided a long list of deficiencies that need correcting/improving.
I'm very confident all the men out there cleaning up this mess are doing their best with a pretty lousy situation. We owe a debt to those men that agree to go onto the front lines in situations like this, doing jobs none of the rest of us would dare touch.
The derailment was caused by an overheated bearing on a railcar.
Unions are right to fear more accidents as railroads increase the length of trains and consider reducing the number of crew members from two to only one. Not to mention the absolutely horrific scheduling rules for crews that deprive them of proper rest between calls, keep them away from home for extended periods, don't allow them to even plan their own lives, and penalize them for taking needed off days.
The tank cars containing vinyl chloride evidently did not explode. The tank cars were properly designed to contain the contents in a derailment. However, the relief valves plugged as the vinyl chloride started to polymerize. There will need to be reconsideration of the proper relief devices for chemicals like VC, if the current ones in use can get plugged.
Somehow the temperature inside the VC cars started rising, and the conclusion was drawn that the VC was polymerizing inside the tank car. Then there was fear the rising temp could result in a BLEVE. This is why the decision was made to dump the contents and burn it off. A BLEVE could have leveled the town.
Shipping of VC needs to be restudied to understand how polymerization can be initiated inside the tank car and mitigation techniques developed and implemented.
Emergency braking systems need to be studied and perfected. The emergency brakes activated once the railcars came off the tracks and air hoses came apart, per the design intent, but railcars still rolled. If this design still results in additional cars coming off the rails and spilling hazardous contents, we need to go back to the drawing board to improve this system. This is the intent of the ECP brakes. Not saying that's the right answer, but it's good someone was thinking of improving what we have and coming up with options.
Vinyl chloride is nasty stuff. We need better procedures for getting rid of it in accidents such as this. Releasing it and burning it needed to be done in this case, but it produced hazardous byproducts (hydrochloric acid gas and some phosgene). We need a better way.
All in all, this incident has provided a long list of deficiencies that need correcting/improving.
I'm very confident all the men out there cleaning up this mess are doing their best with a pretty lousy situation. We owe a debt to those men that agree to go onto the front lines in situations like this, doing jobs none of the rest of us would dare touch.