You wonder how the survivors of the Lac Megantic train disaster feel about today’s news that rail safety officials were worried about the volatility of the kind of oil that blew up their town four months before disaster struck. The Globe and Mail reports that U.S. officials were preparing to investigate the safety of transporting crude oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota as far back as March.
The centre of the Canadian town of Lac Megantic was incinerated when an unattended train carrying Bakken crude came loose, derailed and exploded. 47 people died.
There is concern the Bakken oil has a different flashpoint and can ignite at lower temperatures than other oil. That would require different safety measures for moving it.
U.S. inspection teams had been planning spot checks of rail shipments of Bakken crude and are now carrying them out.
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