A new report has revealed that nearly 15,000 schools, with 5.7m students, sit inside the "blast zone", which is the one-mile area running along tracks that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) recommends be evacuated in case of crashes. These schools would be at high risk if a derailment should happen, says the report, and has therefore called for a temporary halt on oil trains until stricter rules are introduced, such as much slower trains and newer carriers. A series of oil train derailments over the past few years have caused fiery explosions in the US but no casualties as yet, however, some believe it is only a matter of time, following the 2013 derailment in Quebec, that killed 47 people.
A new report has revealed that nearly 15,000 schools, with 5.7m students, sit inside the "blast zone", which is the one-mile area running along tracks that the US Department of Transportation (DoT) recommends be evacuated in case of crashes. These schools would be at high risk if a derailment should happen, says the report, and has therefore called for a temporary halt on oil trains until stricter rules are introduced, such as much slower trains and newer carriers. A series of oil train derailments over the past few years have caused fiery explosions in the US but no casualties as yet, however, some believe it is only a matter of time, following the 2013 derailment in Quebec, that killed 47 people.