US safety board: Oil train tank cars need urgent upgrades

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By MATTHEW BROWN

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Tank cars carrying oil or ethanol by rail urgently need to be retrofitted to make them more fire-resistant after a spate of explosive accidents in recent months revealed the shortcomings of industry-backed safety standards, U.S. officials said Monday.

The National Transportation Safety Board issued a series of recommendations calling for the tank cars to be fitted with protective systems better able to withstand fire than the bare steel construction now widely in use.

Possible alternatives include ceramic "thermal blankets" that surround the tank to shield it from intense heat should a nearby car catch fire.

The board also called for better valves that can prevent pressure from building inside tank cars as they heat up from nearby fires. And it said a decade-long retrofit timeline that's been suggested by the tank car industry was too long to wait.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150406/us-oil-train-safety-9c531323a1.html

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

1. Recommendations? Are they mandatory?

[cstanleytech]

2. Want to bet nothing will be done about it just like nothing is being

done about fixing dams, roads and bridges even after varies incidents like bridges collapsing and killing people?

[Kelvin Mace]

3. Great, until then

prohibit rail transport of this stuff.

[AndyTiedye]

4. Then it Goes by Truck

and tanker trucks go "boom" when they get into accidents too.

[Agony]

5. no problem

Hillary will call Buffett, President Obama will call Pritzker. done deal, we're all Democrats, money is not an object.