Another DM&E accident. This time, just blocks from South Dakota’s state capitol. Photo by Terry Woster of the Argus Leader.
PIERRE - Five cars of a Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad train hauling bentonite clay from the Belle Fourche area to Chicago derailed in Pierre a couple of blocks south of the state Capitol building overnight Wednesday.
The derailment was blamed on a broken rail. Kevin Schieffer, head of DM&E, said he anticipated that the track would be clear and in operation again by today. “It was a significant derailment but not a huge one,” he said.
Bentonite clay is used in products ranging from cat litter to cosmetics, he said. The derailment happened on a section of track that runs behind a football field and track. The incident was confined to railroad property, Schieffer said.
The railroad has been stymied so far in attempts to upgrade existing track and build new track to the coalfields of Wyoming. A federal agency recently turned down the railroad’s request for a loan. Schieffer said the derailment “is the perfect example of why we need that project. That track through there is 100 years old. It’s worn out, and it needs to be replaced.”
The old, “we need money to improve our safety” line that we’ve heard from Schieffer so often. Just to be fair and balanced, a rebuttal from Track The Truth.
- Since 2003, when the FRA loaned DM&E $233 million, DM&E’s main track accident rate has soared to eight times the national rate – a 75 percent increase over its pre-loan rate.
- In 2004, DM&E used some of that federal loan to replace old track near Balaton, Minn. A month later a DM&E train traveling at 30 miles per hour derailed. Fourteen cars were off the tracks, spilling 65,000 gallons of flammable materials and forcing the evacuation of 100 local residents.
- Barely half of DM&E’s train accidents in the past six years were caused by track defects. FRA records indicate it’s an issue of mismanagement – not current track conditions.
- Eliminate all track defects, and DM&E’s train accident rate still would be four times higher than the national average.
- New track won’t fix the No. 1 cause of train accidents: human error.
