WASHINGTON — A broken rail caused the derailment and subsequent fire involving a BNSF Railway train in Raymond, Minn., according to a National Transportation Safety Board memo in the investigation docket of the March 30, 2023, incident released Monday.
Twenty-three cars derailed in the incident, 10 of which were carrying ethanol; material was released from five of those cars and caught fire, the NTSB said in its preliminary accident report. At the time the preliminary report was issued, the board said it had sent a section of broken rail to a lab for further investigation [see “Fractured rail being examined …,” Trains News Wire, April 19, 2023].
An Oct. 10 “close-out memo,” which recommends the conclusion of the investigation, says that “track-train dynamics” caused the rail to break under the passing two-locomotive, 40-car train. The memo says gaskets on three ethanol cars were destroyed by fire, leading to additional release of hazardous material, and notes similar issues were identified in the recently released report on tank-car performance in a derailment of a BNSF train in Oklaunion, Texas. That report led to a series of recommendations regarding gasket performance [see “NTSB calls for new gasket standards …,” News Wire, Sept. 29, 2023].
The full docket of 11 documents, including descriptions of tank-car damage and other details, is available here.
Gentlemen, the recommendation is for upgraded gaskets. Why the negativity?
Or new pipelines? Chuckle.
Perhaps the government would rather see all HAZMAT shipments done by trucks?
They are aware that trucks are responsible for 93% of all hazmat releases and RRs are responsible for fewer than 3%.