TOXIC PLUME - Officials are asking about railroad safety after a fiery derailment in Ohio generated a huge plume of smoke and forced evacuations in a small town because of concerns about the toxic chemicals the train was carrying.
OMAHA, Nebraska — The fiery derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals — sending a huge plume of smoke in the air and forcing residents of a small Ohio town to evacuate — has highlighted the potentially disastrous consequences of train accidents and raised questions about railroad safety.
" I'm scared to go back home,"resident Brittany Dailey had said Monday."I'm eventually going to have to go back, but it makes me want to sell my house and move at this point." Railroads try to route hazardous materials shipments on the safest path. Most of the worst derailments in recent years happened in rural areas, but in 2013 a derailment in Canada killed 47 people in the town of Lac Megantic and caused millions of dollars in damage. A 2005 derailment in Graniteville, South Carolina, killed nine people and injured more than 250 after toxic chlorine gases were released.
Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Department coalition, said he worries the chances of a catastrophic derailment are increasing because major freight railroads have eliminated roughly one-third of their workers over the past six years. Companies have shifted to running fewer, longer trains and say they don't need as many crews, mechanics and locomotives.
Regulators at the Federal Railroad Administration say the accident data so far does not show the industry's new operating model is unsafe. But unions say the new system is risky.
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