Report cites possible causes of December’s fiery oil train derailment in Whatcom County
A BNSF Railway oil train showed evidence of possible vandalism after it “experienced a broken train collision,” derailed and exploded into flames north of Ferndale last December, according to a report on the accident released Thursday, Sept. 9.
In its report, the Federal Railroad Administration said it can’t be certain of the accident’s cause, where 10 tank cars loaded with highly flammable Bakken crude oil jumped the tracks at Portal Way and Main Street shortly before noon Dec. 22, 2020, as the BNSF train headed toward the Phillips 66 refinery at Cherry Point.
Three tank cars caught fire and 120 nearby residents were evacuated for several hours as firefighters brought the blaze under control.
No injuries were reported.
Several contributing causes listed below likely led to the derailment because unlocked coupler pins between two cars caused the train to separate, and closed or partially closed angle cocks prevented emergency braking, the report said.
Contributing causes include:
▪ BNSF management’s failure to notify employees about previous vandalism events.
▪ BNSF’s failure to comply with federal requirements regarding the securement of trains.
▪ Crews did not perform a “train check” function.
▪ Possible vandalism.
In a June 10 report, the National Transportation Safety Board did not determine the cause of the incident, but it said the FBI was in charge of the investigation and described how the derailment occurred.
The Federal Railroad Administration’s report provides more detail about the collision and its possible causes.
The report ruled out:
▪ Drug or alcohol use among the crew.
▪ Damage to the tracks.
▪ Weather-related factors because of freezing temperatures and light snow on the ground.
▪ Crew fatigue.
But the report faulted BNSF for not alerting its crew to several instances of politically-motivated sabotage that had occurred recently in the area.
And it criticized the crew for leaving the train unguarded for several hours during a crew swap and for failing to conduct required safety checks before starting again toward the refinery.
“In both instances, vandals had opportunities to tamper with the couplers and brakepipe angle cocks. FRA’s investigation determined that two crews failing to comply with traincheck requirements established the foundation for this derailment,” the report said.
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 11:11 AM.
