Electrified rail pierced New York train in crash, official says

Electrified rail pierced New York train in crash, official says Thu, Feb 05 10:53 AM EST image 2 of 17 By Sebastien Malo VALHALLA, N.Y. (Reuters) - Hundreds of feet of electrified rail skewered the first two carriages of a New York commuter train in a collision with a car at a railroad crossing, a federal investigator said on Wednesday, describing the area's worst rail crash in decades. Investigators were focused on why the car was stopped at the crossing near the suburb of White Plains north of New York City before the Metro-North train crashed into it during Tuesday evening's rush hour, pushing the vehicle about 1,000 feet down the line. The rail broke into long pieces, penetrating the first train carriage as a fire broke out, apparently fueled by gasoline in the vehicle's fuel tank, gutted the rail car's interior, he said. At least one section of the electrified, or "third," rail also entered the second carriage near its ceiling. "This third rail is just basically piling up inside that first train car," Robert Sumwalt, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said at a news conference ahead of a week of gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses. Sumwalt said the NTSB expected to release data from the recorder on the train on Thursday. Five train passengers and the woman who was driving the Mercedes sport utility vehicle that was stuck on the tracks were killed. Investigators said they do not yet have an explanation for how the vehicle, which officials had earlier mistakenly identified as a Jeep, became stuck on the tracks. Metro-North, run by the state-controlled Metropolitan Transportation Authority, had four high-profile accidents in 2013 that led to a safety assessment by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). In a March 2014 report to the U.S. Congress, the FRA criticized the nation's second-largest railroad for a "poor safety culture" and "ineffective training". The NTSB released a report late last year that also identified common safety issues, but Sumwalt said Tuesday's crash may be unrelated. "I would be very cautious with trying to draw a nexus with what may have happened with Metro-North in the past and this accident," he said. The crash appeared to be the deadliest rail accident in the New York area since March 1982, when nine teenagers in a van were killed when a train crashed into them at a crossing in Mineola. A Metro-North train derailed near the northern edge of New York City in December 2013, killing four people and injuring 70. In May 2013, two Metro-North passenger trains collided in Connecticut, injuring more than 70. Some 650 passengers regularly take the 5:44 train, which carries commuters through some of country's wealthiest suburbs. Fifteen people were injured, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said. One passenger remained in critical condition and another passenger in "serious" condition on Wednesday afternoon at the local trauma hospital along with six other patients with less serious injuries, Westchester Medical Center officials said. The Mercedes' driver was identified as Ellen Brody, a 49-year-old jewelry-shop worker with three children, according to Paul Feiner, the Greenburgh town supervisor. "She was not a risk-taker in terms of safety," Feiner, who described himself as a family friend, said in a telephone interview. One of the killed passengers was identified as Eric Vandercar, who worked at Mesirow Financial, according to a statement by his previous employer, Morgan Stanley. Another was Walter Liedtke, a curator of European paintings for New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the museum said. Collisions at grade crossings in the United States have declined by more than 40 percent to 2,091 in 2013, from 3,502 at the turn of the century, according to data compiled by the Association of American Railroads and the FRA. Graphic: http://link.reuters.com/syh93w (Additional reporting by Bill Trott and Eric Beech in Washington, Nick Carey in Chicago, Dan Burns, Barbara Goldberg and Jed Horowitz in New York; Writing by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Scott Malone, Will Dunham and Grant McCool)

Train collision in North Dakota sets oil rail cars ablaze

Mon, Dec 30 19:44 PM EST image 1 of 2 By Alicia Underlee Nelson FARGO, North Dakota (Reuters) - A BNSF train carrying crude oil in North Dakota collided with another train on Monday, setting off a series of explosions that left at least 10 cars ablaze, the latest in a string of incidents that have raised alarms over growing oil-by-rail traffic. Local residents heard five powerful explosions just a mile outside of the small town of Casselton after a westbound train carrying soybeans derailed, and an eastbound 104-car train hauling crude oil ran into it just after 2 p.m. CST (2000 GMT), local officials said. There were no reports of any injuries. City officials said they heard a series of blasts following the collision, including one at 3:40 p.m. Windows shook at the city auditor's office. "Approximately 10 cars are fully engulfed resulting in heavy smoke in the area," the Cass County sheriff said in a statement at 4:36 p.m., adding that local fire and hazardous material teams were battling the blaze. The sheriff said it was not yet clear how the collision had occurred. Residents within 10 miles were asked to remain indoors to avoid contact with the smoke. Casselton City Auditor Sheila Klevgard said crews are pushing snow to contain the oil before it reaches a nearby creek. Half of the oil cars have been separated from the train, but another 56 cars remain in danger, said Cecily Fong, the public information officer with the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services. The collision destroyed both engines on the oil train. Both trains were operated by BNSF Railway Co, which is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The incident will likely stoke concerns about the safety of shipping increasing volumes of crude oil by rail, a trend that emerged from the unexpected burst of shale oil production out of North Dakota's Bakken fields. Over two-thirds of the state's oil production is currently shipped by rail. Initial reports from the scene of the accident did not point to a malfunction on the oil-carrying train. Still, videos of the exploding railcars are likely to add to the ongoing debate on what fixes are needed as older train cars carry flammable fuels like oil. The derailment occurred about a mile west of Casselton, a small town just west of Fargo, between an ethanol plant and the Casselton Reservoir, Fong said. Casselton is state Governor Jack Dalrymple's hometown. RAIL CROSSROADS North Dakota is home to a raging shale oil boom that produced nearly 950,000 barrels of oil a day in October. It is also a major grain producer and long accustomed to a high volume of rail traffic. But shipments of oil have surged lately, most of it the light, sweet Bakken variety that experts say is particularly flammable. Trains carried nearly 700,000 barrels a day of North Dakota oil to market in October, a 67 percent jump from a year earlier, according to the state Pipeline Authority. This summer, a runaway oil train carrying Bakken crude derailed and exploded in the center of the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic, killing 47 people. The incident fueled a drive for tougher standards for such shipments, including potentially costly retrofits to improve the safety of tank cars that regulators have cited as prone to puncture. In early November, two dozen cars on another 90-car oil train derailed in rural Alabama, erupting into flames that took several days to fully extinguish. The Association of American Railroads recently proposed costly fixes to older tank cars that do not meet its latest standards but continue to carry hazardous fuels such as oil. The fixes include protective steel jackets, thermal protection and pressure relief valves, which could cost billions of dollars. Oil shippers, likely to be saddled with the costs of retrofits, oppose some of the changes proposed by the association. Following the Canadian rail disaster, the U.S. Department of Transportation began an operation it dubbed "Bakken Blitz," which includes spot inspection of oil shipments aboard trains in North Dakota. (Additional reporting by Jeanine Prezioso and Selam Gebrekidan in New York; Editing by Gary Hill, Jonathan Leff, Bob Burgdorfer, Lisa Shumaker and Phil Berlowitz) ======== Fiery oil train collision forces evacuation of North Dakota town Tue, Dec 31 04:02 AM EST image 1 of 5 By Alicia Underlee Nelson FARGO, North Dakota (Reuters) - Residents of a small town in North Dakota were urged to evacuate after a BNSF train carrying crude oil collided with another train on Monday, setting off a series of explosions and fires, the latest in a string of incidents that have raised alarms over growing oil-by-rail traffic. Local residents heard five powerful explosions just a mile outside of the small town of Casselton after a westbound 112-car train carrying soybeans derailed. An eastbound 106-car train hauling crude oil ran into it just after 2 p.m. CST, local officials said. There were no injuries in the collision that left 21 rail cars on fire, according to BNSF. Residents within 5 miles of Casselton were urged to evacuate to avoid contact with the smoke. Residents within 10 miles were asked to remain indoors. Casselton resident Jolie Fiedler and her husband gathered their two dogs and left their home. "It's better safe than sorry - just get out of town and dodge the smoke, I guess," she said. "I'm hoping that I can go home tomorrow, but who knows." Casselton City Auditor Sheila Klevgard said crews are pushing snow to contain the oil before it reaches a nearby creek. Half of the oil cars have been separated from the train, but another 56 cars remain in danger, said Cecily Fong, the public information officer with the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services. The collision destroyed both engines on the oil train. Both trains were operated by BNSF Railway Co, which is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The incident will likely stoke concerns about the safety of shipping increasing volumes of crude oil by rail, a trend that emerged from the unexpected burst of shale oil production out of North Dakota's Bakken fields. Over two-thirds of the state's oil production is currently shipped by rail. Initial reports from the scene of the accident did not point to a malfunction on the oil-carrying train. Still, videos of the exploding rail cars are likely to add to the ongoing debate on what fixes are needed as older train cars carry flammable fuels such as oil. The derailment occurred about a mile west of Casselton, a town of about 2,300 just west of Fargo, between an ethanol plant and the Casselton Reservoir, Fong said. Casselton is state Governor Jack Dalrymple's hometown. RAIL CROSSROADS North Dakota is home to a raging shale oil boom that produced nearly 950,000 barrels of oil a day in October. It is also a major grain producer and long accustomed to a high volume of rail traffic. But shipments of oil have surged lately, most of it the light, sweet Bakken variety that experts say is particularly flammable. Trains carried nearly 700,000 barrels a day of North Dakota oil to market in October, a 67 percent jump from a year earlier, according to the state Pipeline Authority. This summer, a runaway oil train carrying Bakken crude derailed and exploded in the center of the Quebec town of Lac-Megantic, killing 47 people. The incident fueled a drive for tougher standards for such shipments, including potentially costly retrofits to improve the safety of tank cars that regulators have cited as prone to puncture. In early November, two dozen cars on another 90-car oil train derailed in rural Alabama, erupting into flames that took several days to fully extinguish. The Association of American Railroads recently proposed costly fixes to older tank cars that do not meet its latest standards but continue to carry hazardous fuels such as oil. The fixes include protective steel jackets, thermal protection and pressure relief valves, which could cost billions of dollars. Oil shippers, likely to be saddled with the costs of retrofits, oppose some of the changes proposed by the association. Following the Canadian rail disaster, the U.S. Department of Transportation began an operation it dubbed "Bakken Blitz," which includes spot inspection of oil shipments aboard trains in North Dakota. (Additional reporting by Jeanine Prezioso and Selam Gebrekidan in New York; Editing by Gary Hill, Jonathan Leff, Bob Burgdorfer, Lisa Shumaker and Phil Berlowitz) train explosion  Reply · knoose42 minutes ago Minnesotans and North Dakota's are some of the best educated and toughest people in the entire country. I wouldn't worry. Reply · Light_Rider54 minutes ago Poor people. Reply · 1 YokubouTenshi 52 minutes ago Read description, no reports of injuries. Reply · GamePart.ru 26 minutes ago +YokubouTenshi they might appear later. But not insures but deaths Reply · TheStuffz13 minutes ago A train of grain cars ran into a train of crude oil tankers. BNSF said they have to let it burn itself out. Reply · VancouverViewTV25 minutes ago Stay indoors? Why? What was it's cargo? Reply · helmsplitter0233 21 minutes ago looked like a nuke XD(epic conspiracy face)  Reply · Hans Bayer1 minute ago Marsh mallows anyone ? Reply · TrickShot11001 hour ago More than likely a oil shipment train from the Williston area, near Montana. Yes, Cassleton is close to Fargo. (near Minnesota)