"Many Towns Unprepared To Handle Train Derailments And Hazmat Spills"

"A train derails and spills at least 1,000 gallons of hazardous materials in the U.S. about once every two months. Nearly half of those derailments resulted in evacuations; more than a quarter resulted in a fire or explosion since 2015, an analysis of federal derailment data showed.

And many communities along the rail lines aren’t prepared to keep people safe when it happens.

That’s the finding of an investigation by the University of Maryland’s Howard Center for Investigative Journalism that reviewed hundreds of rail safety documents and reports and interviewed dozens of industry professionals and first responders.

The Howard Center also obtained unprecedented access to rail data collected by a network of AI-enhanced camera sensors, which allowed reporters to track shipments of hazardous materials along 2,200 miles of rail lines between the U.S.-Canadian border and West Texas.