Federal regulators proposed new rules Tuesday designed to prevent unattended railcars carrying crude oil from running off the tracks.
The Federal Railroad Administration proposal comes after a Canadian investigation found that a July 2013 explosion of a tank car holding crude oil that killed 47 people in Quebec originated with the car rolling down the rails after it was left unmonitored. The Canadian probe blamed a systemic breakdown for the accident.
“Safety is our top priority,” Transportation Department Secretary Anthony Foxx said. “Today’s action is only the latest in more than two dozen steps we have taken in the last year to further safeguard communities along train routes that carry crude oil and other flammable liquids.”
The proposed rules would prohibit trains carrying hazardous materials from being left unwatched, unless specific requirements for securing the trains are followed. It also calls for installing and repairing locking mechanisms, additional inspections and verification by “qualified persons” that proper locking and securement procedures are in place.
The Lac-Megantic catastrophe and derailments in the U.S. have driven the Obama administration, with pressure from congressional lawmakers, toward a broader push to improve safety measures for shipping growing amounts of North American crude oil across the country.
Oil production in the U.S. is booming, especially from the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota and Montana, which has led refiners and producers to rely on railroads to transport the fuel in the absence of pipelines.
The number of carloads of crude originating from the Bakken has jumped from 10,800 in 2009 to more than 400,000 last year, according to the DOT. Accidents involving trains carrying crude oil have increased as well, climbing from zero in 2010 to five both last year and this year.
Tangential to the the federal rulemaking, the DOT is looking into whether Bakken crude is more flammable than others. Draft rules it proposed in July operates under the assumption that it might be and, as such, the proposed rules set a higher safety standard for the tank cars that handle Bakken crude — a move that has generated criticism from some in the oil industry.
