Repost from YouTube
This 1-minute video superimposes a 1-mile blast zone over the tracks in Benicia’s Industrial Park. Of particular interest near the end of the video is the MOVING blast zone, which shows how the proposed 4000-foot 50-car “bomb trains” would roll right past Valero and progress almost to the Benicia Bridge before coming to a stop, then back in to Valero’s offloading racks.
Thanks to Constance Beutel for this graphic illustration of the potential for a catastrophic accident in our beloved little town.
Coke dust contained after single rail car came off tracks in Industrial Park on Monday
Staff Report
Derailment in Benicia Industrial Park, 11/4/16
Benicia police said a single rail car carrying coke dust from Valero Benicia Refinery derailed Monday, but no one was injured and no spillage occurred.
The cause of the derailment is under investigation, Benicia police Lt. Frank Hartig said in a news release.
He said Benicia Police Dispatch Center received a call at approximately 12:42 p.m. about the derailment at the intersection of Park and Bayshore roads in the Industrial Park, and Benicia police, Benicia Fire Department and representatives from the the refinery responded.
Hartig said they learned that the rail car loaded with coke dust, a refinery byproduct containing sulfur, carbon and heavy metals, had derailed while leaving the Valero property and crossing Park Road.
The train was traveling in an eastbound direction when the derailment occurred, he said, and the coke dust was contained in the rail car and there was no spillage.
There were no reported injuries to anyone involved, Hartig said.
He said investigators from the Union Pacific Railroad, which owns the rail car, responded to take over as the primary investigating agency, and they will seek to determine whether the derailment was caused by issues with tracks or the rail car, or whether it was caused by operator error.
He said the train engineers are cooperating with Union Pacific investigators, and the train engine is being examined as well.
The derailment caused damage to the roadway at the train crossing site, Hartig said, but the roadway was reopened to vehicular traffic at approximately 2:30 p.m.
The derailed train car remains on scene until machinery can arrive that will rerail the car, he said, and the roadway may have to be closed again until that can be accomplished.
“Through the collaborative efforts of the agencies that responded to this incident, the scene was rendered safe, and in a short amount of time the clearing of the roadway and reopening to vehicular traffic was done quickly and efficiently,” Hartig said.
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