MARCH 22, 2015
Transportation Safety Board says no injuries reported
following derailment of 15 to 20 potash cars.
A train derailment south of Edmonton has left over a
dozen train cars mangled on the side of a highway Sunday morning.
The Transportation Safety Board has confirmed between 15 to
20 cars, all carrying potash, left the tracks near Highway 13, about one
kilometre outside the town of Wetaskiwin, Alta.
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board are
expected to arrive on the scene later today (Laurel Wheler)
"It’s just a total wreck,” said Dale Aitchison, who
came across the derailment shortly after it happened.
"They are pretty much crunched up and piled up on top
of each other.”
While no one was injured in the derailment, Aitchison said
the incident made him worry about the safety of having freight trains run so
close to the town.
"There’s a lot of oil, a lot of gas around here. If
that left the tracks, it would be devastating.”
The highway has been blocked off and a team of investigators
with the safety board is expected to arrive on scene later in the afternoon.
One has to marvel at the high standards of safety the
Federal government vigorously imposes on the rail companies.
Just stunning enforcement (sarcasm here). Since January, seven or eight major
derailments in Canada? Canada has a huge
rail road system from coast to coast and every year the load demand and train
traffic gets heavier the trains get longer and the rail company's keep chipping
away at their operating costs by reducing track and equipment maintenance as much
as possible while governments seem only capable of talk loud and flapping their
lips instead of actually clamping down and enforcing rules already in place
that seem to just keep on getting ignored.
Source: www.cbc.ca
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EDMONTON -- The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) says 20 cars carrying potash derailed just north of Wetaskiwin, Alta., around 9:09 a.m. Sunday near Highway 13.
Pictures from the scene show piles of potash, which is mostly used in fertilizers, spilling onto the ground.
No one was injured in the derailment and there are no environmental concerns. TSB investigators have been deployed to the scene.
Wetaskiwin is approximately 70 kilometres south of Edmonton.
This is the latest of a few train mishaps in the Edmonton area over the past few years.
In November 2013, more than a dozen CN Rail cars flew off the tracks west of Edmonton near the hamlet of Peers east of Highway 32.
Twelve of the derailed cars were loaded with lumber, while one was carrying sulphur dioxide.
On Oct. 19, 2013, a CN freight train carrying crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas derailed near Gainford, Alta.
More than 120 residents were evacuated from their homes when two of the cars exploded and fire threatened nearby residential properties.
Officials conducted a controlled burn of six of the 13 derailed cars before the order was lifted four days later.
In August 2005, a CN train derailed along Lake Wabamun, about 65 km west of Edmonton, dumping more than 700,000 litres of fuel and a wood preservative along the shore and into the water.
Source:http://www.lfpress.com