Track inspectors play crucial role in safe crude transport
About 70 trains rumble through Spokane each day. Since those trains began hauling flammable crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region to Western Washington ports and refineries in 2012, state and local attention to rail infrastructure has increased.
The fiery derailment of a Union Pacific oil train last summer in the Columbia River Gorge was caused by one or more broken bolts on a curved section of track. No one was injured, but the town of Mosier, Oregon, was evacuated while the oil in four tank cars burned for about 14 hours.