Feds want railroad companies to share cargo list after every derailment
The proposed rule comes as federal regulators hold hearings on the response to the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
The federal government is proposing that trains traveling through Michigan and across the U.S. automatically inform first responders of all cargo onboard whenever there’s a derailment.
The nation’s half dozen largest railroads already have an app available — and printed copies inside a locomotive — where emergency workers can look up what the train is carrying. And those railroads are supposed to remain in contact with first responders all along a train’s route.
But a new rule proposed by the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration would require all 600 railroads that transport chemicals to electronically push out a list of the cargo on any train that derails to emergency crews.
Officials say that could save time — and perhaps lives.
The proposed rule comes as federal regulators hold hearings on the response to the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio — which included disposing some toxic waste from the wreckage to a disposal site near Belleville, Mich.
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