Fourth Oil Train Derailment in a Month and Twelfth for the Year

Yet another train carrying crude oil derailed in northern Ontario. This one occured on Saturday March 7 and as of March 10 the resulting fire was still burning and billowing thick plumes of black smoke. Many of the cars on the Canadian National Railway Co., train overturned and spilled oil into a local waterway. This is the fourth train freight train derailment in North America in as many weeks and the twelfth such incident this year.
The derailment occurred as the 94 cars long train passed over a bridge above the Makami River near the town of Gogama, Ontario. At least thirty-five cars came off the tracks and a minimum of five came to rest in the water.

This is yet another oil train wreck in what is an increasingly commonplace occurrence. There have been 12 oil train derailments so far this year and four in the last month alone.

The three other fiery oil train derailments in North America include one in West Virginia and another in Illinois.

What makes these oil train derailments, fires and spills even more troubling is the fact that 3 out of the 4 occurred with the supposedly safer CPC-1232, which replaced the DOT-111s.

Together these wrecks prove that the transportation of oil by rail is not safe.