OKLAHOMA CITY – Any freight train operating in Oklahoma would have to be staffed with a minimum crew of two, House Bill 2874 mandates.
“If a commercial airplane needs a pilot and a co-pilot, so do mile-long trains barreling through densely populated areas while loaded with chemicals and other deleterious substances,” said state Rep. David Perryman, author of HB 2874.
In 2013, an unmanned Montreal Maine and Atlantic Railway (MMA) train carrying 72 tank cars of highly combustible crude oil barreled out of control down a hill toward a town in Quebec, Canada.
According to The Century Foundation, the MMA train was 50% heavier than regulations allowed and reached a speed of 65 mph - three times the typical speed. In the middle of town, the train arrived at a 10 m.p.h. curve and careened off the track, rupturing tanks and disgorging six million liters of crude. Within moments the oil was burning, flowing down streets and into storm sewers, creating geysers of fire exploding from manholes. People tried to flee the flaming tsunami, but the resulting inferno obliterated most of downtown, destroying 30 buildings and incinerating 47 people.
An initial violation of Perryman’s proposed new law would result in a civil penalty of $250 to $1,000 imposed by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates railroads in this state. A second infraction within three years would result in an OCC civil penalty of $1,000 to $5,000, and a third or subsequent offense would result in a fine of $5,000 to $10,000.
HB 2874 would not pertain to any train or light engine used in the movement of hostler services or utility employees, the measure stipulates. A hostler is a person who is qualified to “move engines around in the railyard,” and utility employees are “those who work in a railyard, hooking and unhooking train cars and switching tracks,” Perryman said. “This legislation is based on a pending federal bill,” the Chickasha Democrat added.
Four years ago then-Rep. James Lockhart, D-Heavener, filed a similar bill to require minimum crews on trains.
A train hauling freight or passengers would have required no fewer than two “qualified crew members.” A train transporting hazardous materials would have required a crew of at least three members, and a train hauling 51 or more carloads of hazardous materials would have required a crew of at least four.
Lockhart’s bill was assigned to the House Committee on Business, Labor, and Retirement Laws, where it died without ever receiving a hearing.
Several railway companies operate in southwest Oklahoma, including FarmRail Corp., Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), Stillwater Central Railroad, Grainbelt Corp., Union Pacific, Hollis & Eastern, and the Wichita, Tillman & Jackson Railroad.