This week, the National Transportation Safety Board released its findings into the oil train derailment and fire that caused $1.2 million in damage in Lynchburg, Virginia almost two years ago on April 30, 2014 - and concluded that a broken rail was the probable cause of the accident.
The NTSB's findings do not come as a surprise to us. In fact, the results of the investigation simply confirms our position that track integrity is typically the root cause of these derailments, which is why we have long called for a greater emphasis on keeping the trains on the tracks.
As we said in a letter to transport secretary Anthony Foxx last year, rail car breach, explosion, or fire have not been cited as the root cause of any crude-by-rail derailments. Any legislative attempts to improve crude-by-rail safety must also focus on prevention, instead of solely focusing on mitigation.
