A freight train derailment last year left several tank cars containing deadly chemicals twisted and dented just yards from homes in densely populated San Bernardino. The accident raised obvious questions about the transport of hazardous materials by railroad through our region. Our investigation ultimately found ineffective track inspections, misidentified tank cars, and communications problems between railroad and police officials that allowed hundreds of residents to return home before it was safe to do so.
The Press-Enterprise covers Riverside and San Bernardino counties, an area in Southern California that serves as a railroad conduit for growing volumes of goods that have arrived from Asia at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Much of our railroad coverage has focused on increasing rail traffic, toxic diesel exhaust from locomotives and long waits at rail crossings. The threat of potentially deadly chlorine gas escaping from a ruptured tank car became a new target for our reporting after the April 4, 2005 derailment.
The San Bernardino wreck, we reported, was a symptom of a national hazard that claimed more lives in 2005 than in the previous 20 years combined. San Bernardino had escaped a disaster...