Freight trains collide; DOT-111s to carry tar-sands crude from Alberta

2 Dead, 2 Hurt in Arkansas Freight Train Collision

 By KEN MILLER Associated Press Aug 17, 2014

Two Union Pacific train crew members were killed and two others were injured when two freight trains collided head-on in northeast Arkansas early Sunday, Arkansas State Police said.

The collision happened about 3 a.m. in Hoxie, a small town about 90 miles northwest of Memphis Tennessee. A resulting fire took about seven hours to extinguish, according to Union Pacific spokesman Brandon Morris.

Authorities asked about 500 people within 1½ miles of the collision to leave their homes following the crash because of the fire, the Lawrence County Sheriff's Office said. Most were allowed to return home by midmorning Sunday, according to county Emergency Management Director Buddy Williams.

"The fire involved diesel and also there was a tank car that ruptured and it contained an (unknown) alcoholic beverage," Arkansas Department of Emergency Management spokesman Kendell Snyder said. He said there were no other leaks.....read more here

see also: Freight trains carrying toxic chemicals collide in Arkansas, killing two

There’s oil-by-rail good news, and oil-by-rail bad news

Grist    By Heather Smith 15 Aug 2014

...... — the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) proposed new safety rules for oil-by-rail and disaster response.  You could say that it took them long enough, but whatever. Let us live in the moment and be grateful they are doing this now. 

But there is more. Part of the proposed rules involves the vehicle that is at the center of so much of this issue — the older-than-the-hills and puncture-prone DOT-111 tank car. These older tank cars, mostly intended for transporting non-hazardous liquids like corn syrup, have lately been drafted into ferrying volatile Bakken shale crude around the continent. Now the Transportation Department intends to phase them out. This looks like good news, and it is — but there is a wrinkle. The DOT-111s won’t be going away away. Instead, they’ll be given a new job: carrying tar sands crude from Alberta....       read more here