NTSB says fiery 2024 North Dakota derailment proves the need to replace flawed tank cars

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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.

In addition, the NTSB said railroads need to change the way they assemble their trains to ensure flammable liquids aren’t placed close to chemicals that could be toxic if they are inhaled. After this CPKC train derailed on July 5, 2024, methanol spilled out of five breached tank cars and caught fire. Then three tank cars filled with anhydrous ammonia breached in the fire.

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.

And some of the upgraded tank cars developed after previous derailments dating back to the 1990s aren't good enough either because they still have a thin outer shell. Tougher newer rail tank cars are less likely to rupture in a derailment because they are made with stronger steel and better protections and safety features.

The NTSB has been recommending eliminating the use of those cars for hazardous materials at least since the 1990s because of their history of problems, and Congress did mandate that they be replaced for hauling flammable liquids by 2029. The DOT-111 tank cars and a related older model are no longer used for ethanol and rarely used for crude oil, according to the latest figures from the Association of American Railroads trade group.

The industry has been phasing them out since 2013, but several thousand older tank cars are still being used to carry other flammable liquids, including gasoline, solvents and some other chemicals.

The derailment itself was caused by a culvert that collapsed under the train, breaking a rail, but NTSB said the leak-prone tank cars made the resulting crash so much worse. The NTSB said the culvert had been inspected frequently enough, but those exams weren't thorough enough to identify the risk of a collapse ahead of time.

In the North Dakota crash, it was fortunate that few people lived nearby when 29 of the 151 cars on the train careened off the tracks. Only two homes were voluntarily evacuated for two days while crews put out the fires and dealt with the methanol and anhydrous ammonia that spilled. A dozen of the other cars that derailed were carrying plastic pellets.

No injuries were reported in the derailment itself though a handful of workers involved in the cleanup did seek treatment and report health problems after working around the anhydrous ammonia.

CPKC spokesman Patrick Waldron said the railroad received the report after it was released Thursday afternoon and is carefully reviewing it.

Officials at the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration didn't immediately respond to the NTSB report. The Federal Railroad Administration declined to comment immediately on the recommendations.