3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 2016
Railroad blamed for iery oil train derailment
Investigators say
company failed
to maintain track
By MATTHEW BROWN
and GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Federal
investigators on Thursday
blamed Union Paciic Railroad
for a iery oil train derailment
along the Oregon-Washington
border, saying the company
failed to properly maintain its
track.
Preliminary indings on
the June 3 derailment in the
Columbia River Gorge raise
questions about why the com-
pany didn’t ind the broken
bolts that triggered the wreck
when it inspected the tracks
right before the derailment.
Union Paciic faces potential
penalties for safety violations,
oficials said.
The Associated Press
obtained the indings ahead of
their Thursday release.
Advanced electronic brakes
proposed by regulators could
have made the derailment
less severe, Federal Railroad
Administrator Sarah Fein-
berg said. The brakes could
have reduced the number of
cars that went off the tracks
and prevented the one that irst
burst into lames from being
punctured, oficials said.
Railroads have resisted
those brakes because of their
high price tag.
“We’re talking about
upgrading a brake system that
is from the Civil War era,”
Feinberg said. “It’s not too
much to ask these companies
to improve their braking sys-
tems in the event of an accident
so fewer cars are derailing.”
The derailment released
42,000 gallons of crude oil
and sparked a massive ire that
burned for 14 hours.
Union Paciic said its
inspections didn’t detect the
broken bolts that caused the
derailment. The company tests
for sideways movement in the
rails using a machine that puts
an amount of pressure equiv-
alent to a locomotive on the
rails — a stress test that would
reveal loose or broken bolts,
said Justin Jacobs, a Union
Paciic spokesman.
The stress test previously
was conducted every 18
months but will now be done
every three months, Jacobs
said. Union Paciic also has
expanded inspections of all its
tracks in Oregon and Washing-
ton state, particularly in curved
portions of track, he said.
The company has said the
rails were inspected as recently
as May 31, but it wasn’t clear
if the inspection included the
stress test. Jacobs didn’t know.
The government’s pre-
liminary report said walk-
ing inspections along the rails
were critical to detect broken
bolts and track movement.
Feinberg said it was the rail-
road’s responsibility to detect
those problems.
“We feel like it could have
been prevented with closer
inspections, better mainte-
nance,” she said.
At least 27 oil trains have
been involved in major derail-
ments, ires or oil spills in
the U.S. and Canada during
the past decade, accord-
ing to an AP analysis of acci-
dent records. Federal oficials
have responded with require-
ments for tougher tank cars,
speed restrictions and other
actions, but the accidents have
continued.
Steven Ditmeyer, a rail
consultant who worked in
leadership positions at both the
Federal Railroad Administra-
tion and at Burlington North-
ern Railroad, said sheared-
off bolts like those seen in the
Oregon derailment are likely
symptoms of a larger problem.
In the 1990s, he said, Burl-
ington Northern had a series of
derailments on tracks in Wash-
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6
ington state that all involved
sheared off cut spikes, which
served the same function as the
bolts in question in the recent
wreck.
Investigators
eventually
determined overloaded cars,
a lack of lubrication between
the wheel assembly and the
body of the tanker cars and not
enough gravel in the railroad
bed combined to put strain on
the track when the train was
in a curve. That strain loos-
ened the bolts holding the
rails to the rail ties and pushed
the rails apart, causing derail-
ments, he said.
“When they said those
sheared lag bolts, that was the
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hint that said they really need
to look in the direction of these
other aspects,” Ditmeyer told
the AP. “These are heavy cars
when they’re fully loaded,”
and a treatment to reduce the
volatility of the Bakken crude
makes the oil heavier, he said.
The Oregon Department
of Transportation last week
asked federal rail authorities
for a moratorium on oil trains
in the Columbia River Gorge
after also expressing concerns
that the weight of the oil trains
might be too much for the
tracks.
In a presentation last week,
department administrator Hal
Gard said the lag bolts found at
the scene were rusted on both
ends, indicating they were
sheared off before the derail-
ment. State oficials showed a
photo of a pile of lag bolts col-
lected at the site.
The report was released the
day after Union Paciic said it
would start moving oil trains
through the scenic Columbia
River gorge again sometime
later this week.
The company defended its
decision in a statement, reit-
erating the federal obligations
it is under and highlighting
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THE DAILY
ASTORIAN
T HURSDAY E VENING
Mark B. Gibson/The Dalles Chronicle
A train towing cars full of oil sends up a plume of smoke after derailing June 3 near
Mosier by the scenic Columbia River Gorge.
the tiny fraction of its Ore-
gon shipments — less than 1
percent — that come from oil
trains.
In addition to state trans-
portation oficials, Multnomah
County and several municipal-
ities including Portland and
Mosier have called on Con-
gress and the White House for
bans on oil being moved by
rail, which is under the federal
government’s authority.
Gov. Kate Brown has called
for a federal moratorium on
transporting oil on trains until
the system is unquestionably
safe.
“The preliminary indings
released today by the Federal
Railroad Administration con-
irm the deep concerns we have
regarding track safety in the
Columbia River Gorge. Union
Paciic has not done enough to
regain the conidence of Ore-
gonians shaken by the Mosier
derailment to restart oil ship-
ments through this area,” U.S.
Sen. Ron Wyden and U.S.
Sen. Jeff Merkley said in a
statement.
“We reiterate our call for
federal rail regulators to put
in place an emergency order,
and to continue examining
issues related to lag bolts and
track fastening systems that
appear to have caused this
accident.”
Brown reported from Bill-
ings, Montana.
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