Oil trains belong further from population centers

The other day my dog and I happened to be near a railroad crossing as a multicar oil train passed overhead at high speed. Having watched TV coverage of the derailments in Canada and the U.S., and recalling the statements from the local fire crews involved (“we just stand back and let them burn out; there is no way to extinguish these fires”), I realized there was no way I’d survive should those cars derailed near by.

Nor would the kids in the grade school up the road (Horizons Elementary) nor the families in the homes surrounding the tracks. George Walter’s solution to reduce our dependence on oil is laudatory, but I think a better short-term idea would be to build tracks far, far away from population centers so that when the inevitable happens our families can avoid the certain tragedy such derailments cause.

Lacey

This story was originally published July 21, 2015 at 4:34 PM with the headline "Oil trains belong further from population centers."