Thursday, June 05, 2014

Railway inspector found defect the day before a train carrying crude oil derailed in Lynchburg, Va.

One day before the April 30 accident that caused 17 tanker cars to derail in downtown Lynchburg, Va., spilling thousands of gallons of crude oil into the James River, a CSX Corp. inspection found a defect in the rail, Michael Martz reports for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. No serious injuries or deaths were reported from the accident.

"Massoud Tahamtani, director of the State Corporation Commission Division of Utility and Railroad Safety, told a state rail-safety task force about the defect but could not elaborate on its nature or whether it contributed to the wreck, which resulted in three cars tumbling into the James River and one burning up," Martz writes. Tahamtani told reporters, “We don’t know what [the defect] is. CSX told one of my inspectors after the accident and that the company was in the process of addressing it." (Read more)

No comments: