A fiery North Dakota derailment that happened two years ago demonstrated yet again why the National Transportation Safety Board has been urging the rail industry for decades to replace flawed tank cars that tend to rupture in a crash.
The NTSB said in its final report Thursday that the workhorse DOT-111 tank cars are long overdue for replacement because of the way the devastating impact of a derailment is magnified anytime hazardous chemicals leak, especially if they catch fire as they did in this derailment just outside the town of Bordulac, North Dakota.
The worst rail disasters in recent memory were all made worse by tank cars that leaked hazardous materials that caught fire including the 2023 East Palestine, Ohio, derailment, and the 2013 Lac Megantic derailment that devastated that Canadian town and killed 47. DOT-111 tank cars were also involved in a number of disastrous crude oil and ethanol derailments in the early 2000s when railroads routinely hauled entire trains of those flammable commodities.
