- Author
- National Transportation Safety Board
- Title
- National Transportation Safety Board Safety Study: Locomotive Fuel Tank Integrity.
- Coporate
- National Transportation Safety Board, Washington, DC
- Report
- NTSB/SS-92/04, October 1992, 71 p.
- Distribution
- AVAILABLE FROM National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Technology Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161. Telephone: 1-800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000; Fax: 703-605-6900. Website: http://www.ntis.gov
- Keywords
- railroads | fuel tanks | transportation | railroad accidents | diesel fuels | injuries | smoke inhalation | burns (injuries) | hazardous materials | passenger trains | case histories
- Identifiers
- railroad collisions; railroad derailments; Sugar Valleg, Georgia, August 9, 1990; Corona, California, November 7, 1990; Boston, Massachusetts, December 12, 1990
- Abstract
- In 1990, the Safety Board investigated three major accidents involving collisions and derailments of locomotives that resulted in diesel fuel fires from mptured locomotive fuel tanks. Seven crewmembers fatally injured in these accidents suffered extensive burns and smoke inhalation. These accidents heightened the Safety Boards concern about the potential for diesel fuel fires in railroad accidents to fatally injure trapped crewmembers, consume cargo, contribute to hazardous materials fires in the train, and endanger nonrailroad property near the accident site. Because of this heightened concern, the Safety Board initiated a study of this subject. The safety issues discussed in this study are: the adequacy of the current design of the locomo live fuel tank; the factors that affect the current design of locomotive fuel tanks; and the sufficiency of research to improve the integrity of fuel tanks or to improve fuel containment. As a result of this study, recommendations were issued to the Federal Railroad Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Association of American Railroads, General Electric, and the Electra-Motive Division of General Motors.