Do First Responders Need Special Training To Handle Train Disasters? (S. 546)

What is S. 546?

(Updated March 15, 2018)

This bill was enacted on December 16, 2016

This bill seeks to increase transport safety on trains, while establishing new safety training for emergency responders.

As its name suggests, this bill establishes the Railroad Emergency Services Preparedness, Operational Needs, and Safety Evaluation Subcommittee, aptly acronym-ed “RESPONSE.” Reporting directly to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the RESPONSE committee would include FEMA members, local and state government members, rail and oil industry employees and, of course, emergency response personnel. Together, this Justice League of People That Know a Lot About Disasters would evaluate and form recommendations around training and best practices for railroad hazmat emergencies.

Within twelve months of their formation, the RESPONSE committee would offer recommendations on improving rail safety including:

• Information on preparing communities near railroads, particularly small ones with limited resources;
• An evaluation of funding for emergency responder training;
• Considerations when drawing up disaster plans for train derailments (similar to plans for tsunamis or earthquakes);
• Strategies for information integration, and an analysis of whether a database of rail incidents is necessary, plus information on public access of information about rail accidents.

Argument in favor

This bill provides extra training to better prepare emergency responders to handle rail-related emergencies. As these keep happening, this training is necessary to minimize damage.

Argument opposed

Train crashes keep happening. So, maybe we should try and make them safer rather than spending all this money preparing for wrecks? It’s not like they’re inevitable.

Impact

Emergency responders, the Federal Railroad Administration, FEMA, officials in states where there are railroads, people that work on the railroad all the livelong day

Cost of S. 546

A CBO estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

Of Note:

Sponsoring Sen. Heidi Heitkamp’s home state, North Dakota recently experienced an oil boom with the drilling of the Bakken shale. Virtually overnight, small north plains towns found their rents rivaling those of major cities. While dropping oil prices have chilled the frenzy, production is still ongoing.

In addition to luxury apartments, another thing that’s come with the oil boom is increased attention to oil train disasters. Lacking pipelines, North Dakota oil producers have had to rely on trains for distribution. 

The danger of oil trains received widespread attention in the spring of 2013, when a train carrying seventy-two cars of crude oil derailed and descended into the downtown of Lac Mégantic, Quebec, killing 47 people. Since then, oil trains have become a topic of increased media coverage. In the bill's press release, Heitkamp mentions a train carrying 3 million gallons of oil that derailed in Mount Carbon, West Virginia in February of 2015.  and a crash in Casselton, North Dakota, that spilled 400,000 gallons of oil and forced the evacuation of the town in December of 2013.

These are not isolated incidents. In the last two years, oil train derailments have occurred in Virginia, Maine, Alabama, Illinois, Minnesota, New Brunswick and Ontario, as well as in urban areas like Columbus, Ohio and Philadelphia. In response, rail industry leaders have agreed to make some changes, like subjecting volatile material to risk studies. Government officials have warned that, at the current rate, oil trains could derail ten times a year and kill hundreds of people. Local officials across the country say that they are ill-prepared to handle such derailments.

Media:

Sponsoring Rep. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) Press Release

Washington Times

The Republic