Railroad accidents continue steady decline

OMAHA, Neb. – The nation’s railroads are safer than ever, despite recent high-profile accidents like this week’s fiery derailment in Maryland.

Derailments and crossing accidents have steadily declined nationwide even as businesses have come to increasingly rely on trains to move their raw materials and products.

The number of train accidents fell 43 percent to 1,712 between 2003 and last year while the number of incidents at rail crossings dropped 34 percent to 1,960. And the total number of deaths declined 19 percent to 705 during the decade.

Railroads have been investing in their equipment and track, their employee training and in technological tools to help detect problems before they can derail a train. Fewer derailments means fewer delayed deliveries and less need for railroads to re-route traffic for hours or even days. That all helps the industry’s bottom line.

“There’s a strong incentive in the industry to maintain and invest in infrastructure,” said Allan Zarembski, an industry veteran who now leads the railroad engineering and safety program at the University of Delaware.

“Last year was the safest year on record for the railroad industry,” said Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Warren Flatau.

That might surprise anyone who saw the video of a smoldering CSX train after a chemical-fueled explosion near Baltimore Tuesday. Early indications are that the train struck a truck at a private crossing before the derailment.

The Maryland accident comes on the heels of the derailment of a commuter train in Bridgeport, Conn., earlier this month. More than 70 people were injured when a second train struck the one that derailed. And last weekend, a freight train crash in Rockview, Mo., injured seven people and destroyed a highway overpass, which could take a year to repair.