Larkin gets a close-up look at one of the mangled locomotives
NEWBURGH – This week’s derailment of a freight train on the Newburgh waterfront has raised concerns from a number of quarters.
Three locomotives and 14 rail cars, including ones carrying sulfuric acid, jumped the tracks. There were no leaks except for locomotive diesel fuel.
State Senator William Larkin (R, Cornwall-on-Hudson), who had high praise for local first responders said things could have been worse.
“Could you imagine if one more car turned over and went on the Global side where the big tanks are, you would have had some explosion down there,” Larkin said.
Hayley Carlock, Scenic Hudson’s director of environmental advocacy, is relieved that no Bakken crude oil was on that train.
“The fact is we were just lucky this time and we may not be so lucky next time,” Carlock said. “We have trains coming down, 100 or 120 cars filled with explosive Bakken crude oil that go right on these same tracks. It could have been one of those trains and this is just yards from a large oil terminal facility right on the Hudson River.”
Carlock said Bakken crude should not be transported by rail, especially since most of the tanker cars used have been found to be insufficiently protected in the event of an accident.
