by Cassady Craighill
January 7, 2014
The remains of crude oil train cars are visible in this January 2, 2014 photograph outside Casselton, North Dakota not far from the site of a derailment and related explosion on December 30, 2013. The incident involved a westbound Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) train carrying grain and an eastbound BNSF oil train. Eighteen cars on the 106-car oil train derailed and burned. Photo by Ann Arbor Miller/Greenpeace
©Ann Arbor Miller/Greenpeace
After a train carrying grain west derailed near Bismark, North Dakota, an eastbound train carrying crude oil struck the derailed train causing at least 20 cars to catch fire on New Year’s Eve.
While the evacuation for local residents is now lifted, the collision and explosion could have been much worse if closer to the town.
The train was carrying oil from North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields, the same source for the fatal crash and explosion in Quebec this July that claimed 47 lives.
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