A train derailment Friday morning near Chestnut Street was the sixth in the Chattanooga area this year and at least the eighth train accident.
But local and rail officials say they can’t pinpoint why there has been an uptick in rail accidents in recent years.
“We’ll certainly look at this,” said Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Warren Flatau, who confirmed that the rail regulatory agency already is investigating a May 23 CSX derailment near the 3200 block of Broad Street.
In all of 2007, there were five train accidents in Hamilton County. That number rose to nine in 2008 and 16 in 2009. Midway through 2010, the county is on par to hit last year’s high once again.
Chattanooga firefighters stood ready Friday morning to help with the derailment, but the three tanker cars carrying flammable ethanol – deemed hazardous in transportation – didn’t overturn or leak.
CSX spokeswoman Carla Groleau said Friday’s derailment of four cars and an engine occurred in a CSX rail yard, and the company is investigating the cause.
“One tanker was empty and three tankers contained ethanol,” she said in an e-mail. “There were no leaks, no injuries, and it did not impact main line traffic.”
The May 23 derailment involved a car carrying ferrous sulfate, used as fertilizer.
On Jan. 29, 30 cars of a Norfolk Southern train derailed at the foot of Lookout Mountain. The accident blocked Cummings Highway and a railcar landed on top of a 1,000-gallon propane tank, causing a leak. Emergency crews were able to patch it without incident.
Ms. Groleau did not respond to questions about the recent spate of accidents nor to a question about the Federal Railroad Administration’s investigation of the May 23 derailment.
TRACKING TRAINS
Chattanooga Fire Chief Randy Parker said railroads are supposed to reroute trains carrying hazardous materials around larger cities since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
But he said he doesn’t know whether trains are being routed either away from Chattanooga or through Chattanooga to avoid larger cities such as Nashville, Memphis or Atlanta.
“We’re not informed of the traffic that comes through here,” Chief Parker said.
The Fire Department was called to respond to three of this year’s derailments, he said. Another was in Rossville and two were inside rail yards and not reported to firefighters by rail workers.
“I think the railroads generally do a good job of training with us each year,” he said, but he acknowledged that train accidents can have major impacts.
“Hazardous materials are a fact of life. They’re transported by rail, trucks, vans, barges. They’re everywhere around us. We’re trained for that,” the chief said. “For you to use the products you use every day, they have to be transported and get there somehow.”
Mr. Flatau said the rerouting rule is intended to keep hazardous materials in tank cars from being used as terror tools in large, populated areas. But those routes or reroutes are not made public for security reasons.
And usually the railroads decide on routing, he said.
“We have not requested a rerouting,” Mr. Flatau said.
The hazardous material being moved by rail “is originating (in) or destined for the region,” he said.
“And what is the alternative? To move the factories or refineries? … We think we’re holding the railroads accountable,” he said.
As for investigating rail accident trends locally, Mr. Flatau said regulatory inspectors have not found any common threads, but they will continue to monitor accidents and other factors.
Something that did raise a flag for Mr. Flatau on Friday was that firefighters said they did not know what was in the fourth derailed car – a container car – for several hours after the derailment.
“That is serious,” he said. “There should be better communication, even if the car is empty.”
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