Oil train derails in Canada
A train carrying crude oil derailed and caught fire in northern Ontario, Canada, the second derailment in three days for Canadian National Railway Co.
The oil was still burning Sunday night in Gogama, more than a day after 38 of the train’s 94 cars derailed, Reuters reported.
{mosads}It is just the latest major incident involving trains carrying crude oil in North America, a transportation method that has seen a sharp spike in utilization for oil as production has reached its highest point in decades.
The incidents, including one in Quebec, Canada, that killed 47 in 2013, and another major one in February in West Virginia, have caused regulators in the United States to consider rules that would require an overhaul in safety systems for the trains carrying crude and a phaseout of older cars.
Canada, meanwhile, is on track to completely phase out old cars.
A bridge over a waterway was damaged in Saturday’s derailment and five tanker cars fell into the water and leaked. Responders deployed water booms to contain the oil spill, Reuters said.
The train was carrying oil sands from Alberta and was on its way to eastern Canada for refining.
The derailment was about 23 miles away from another Canadian National oil train derailment on Feb. 14, according to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which is investigating the incident.
Two days before the Saturday crash, another Canadian National train derailed elsewhere in Ontario, shutting down the railroad’s main line.
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