News / US lawmakers demand immediate cargo data for first responders to derailments

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Some 13 US attorneys general have lent support to mandating train operators to immediately surrender their cargo information to the authorities in the event of a derailment.

The lawmakers signed a letter of support to the Department of Transportation insisting that first responders and agencies be issued with an electronic cargo manifest.

They claim existing laws have “failed… to make this information easily accessible”, or to “ensure the timely exchange of hazardous materials information from railroads to first responders”.

They wrote: “Concerns about keeping sensitive information from bad actors has to be balanced with the needs of first responders for the information when they respond to a rail accident or incident.”

At least 38 railcars were derailed in February’s derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, 11 of which contained hazardous chemicals, some of which caught fire and some disgorged their contents into the soil and water. A decision was made to deliberately burn the chemicals to prevent further leakage.

At the time, communication was not forthcoming between train operator Norfolk Southern and the emergency services, leading to responders being unaware and unprepared for the situation they were entering. It has also been suggested that, had authorities known about the contents of the cars sooner, different decisions would have been made and more pollution could have been prevented.

One Pennsylvania police officer told the UK Guardian newspaper in February: “We were never given the heads-up about what was on the train, there was a lack of communication and we never told to put on protective hazmat gear, so I didn’t wear anything.”

The emergency response to East Palestine met enormous criticism from lawmakers, including several of whom previously voted to relax safety standards on railroad operators.

Safety bills mandating at least two crew members on cargo trains and to expand the use of electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes – both proposed during the Obama era – were shot down under the Trump administration.

Meanwhile The Loadstar finds the signatures of several vocal critics of the emergency response to East Palestine, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, on a 2021 letter to the Federal Railroad Administration, urging that in-person track inspections be dispensed with in favour of automated ones.

Another recent practice among Class I railroad operators, precision scheduled railroading (PSR), was deemed responsible for various systemic failings, becoming a case study for the ‘Swiss-cheese model’ of safety management. As well as a shortfall in planned maintenance ultimately leading to the wheel bearing failure which derailed one train, the heaviest cars were mounted at the back instead of the front, for reasons of reducing dwell time in rail yards, and the excessive overall length of the train was also associated with cost reductions from driver pay and streamlined engine utilisation.

With thousands of incidents every year, derailments are far from unusual in the US, two more occurring within a fortnight of the Ohio crash.

Pennsylvania attorney general Michelle Henry said of the letter: “This will not guarantee derailments will not occur — however, we need a structure in place to enable our brave first responders to quickly and efficiently do their jobs to minimise impact.”