NTSB: Broken rail triggered fiery March derailment in western Minnesota
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A federal investigation has found that the fiery train derailment that prompted the evacuation of the western Minnesota town of Raymond last March was caused by a broken rail.
The National Transportation Safety Board had issued a preliminary report weeks after the crash, pointing to a section of fractured rail as something that needed further analysis.
On Monday, the agency released an “accident investigation closeout memo” that stated the March 30 derailment was caused by a “catastrophic in-service rail failure.”
“Post-accident inspections and evidence obtained indicate that the track-train dynamics worsened a rail head surface condition until a complete sectional break out of the rail head occurred” on that morning.
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Nearly two dozen rail cars derailed just outside of Raymond; 10 contained ethanol and several of them caught fire, prompting the evacuation of about 800 residents.
The evacuation order ended later that day. There were no reports of injuries.
In addition to determining the cause, the NTSB said it found two tank cars were breached in the derailment, releasing ethanol that caught fire. The flames destroyed gaskets on three more tank cars, allowing more hazardous materials to be released.
The agency said similar issues were found in another derailment, and “insufficiency of tank care thermal protection system design and thermal performance regulations and standards for gaskets used in tank car service equipment are being addressed,” including several safety recommendations.
NTSB documents released Monday state that the train that derailed at Raymond was traveling at 45 mph at the time of the derailment, below the maximum allowable speed of 49 mph for that stretch of track.
None of the crew had drugs or alcohol in their system. No one was injured.
The derailment caused nearly $1.9 million in damage to rail cars and the track. NTSB documents state the cost of clearing and cleaning up the scene, and the cost of affected cargo on the cars, exceeded $4 million.