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.
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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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