PERRIS, Calif. — The Federal Railroad Administration is investigating last week’s incident involving a leaking tank car that led to evacuations and closure of an interstate highway for about a day.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise reports the FRA’s Hazards Materials Division will look at preparation and loading of the tank car, the car’s move from origin to destination, and unloading of the car, and could also investigate the car’s construction and maintenance, according to FRA spokesman Warren Flatau.
The leak of highly flammable styrene led to the closure of Interstate 215 because of concerns over a possible explosion, as well as evacuation of about 170 people until the leak was stabilized [see “Tank car stabilized …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 13, 2022].
The agency Cal Fire said the car was loaded 50 days before the leak, with an official saying he was told the styrene needed to be offloaded within 45 days. Cal Fire officials believe a stabilizing chemical failed, leading the styrene to heat to more than 300 degrees instead of its usual, the newspaper reports. BNSF Railway delivered the privately owned car a week before the leak occurred, a railroad spokeswoman said.
Still 43 days to move a cargo, from point A to point B in the US?
I really can’t see BNSF getting in trouble with the FRA if what they said is right. Sounds like the company let it sit there for a week before leak started. Sounds like the safety valve worked with it sitting in very how weather. I wonder if it was loaded some place that was cooler and it expanded and popped the safety?
Very well could be, except for the part about the car being loaded 50 days earlier. Hopefully it didn’t take 50 days to get it there! (OK, 43 if the car set at the receiver for a week)