Crude oil transported on a Canadian train that derailed and exploded, killing 47, was not labeled properly to indicate its level of volatility.
The crash in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, has led the Transportation Safety Board of Canada to heighten their handling of oil traveling by rail - a trade that's currently booming both in the country and abroad.
According to Donald Ross of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada who spoke to the New York Times on Wednesday, the crude oil was classified as a low flash point material, such as diesel fuel.
But after running tests on leftover oil in the tank cars that made it through the crash, officials found the oil included gasoline. According to the Wall Street Journal, suppliers and overseers of the cargo gave investigators "contradictory" details concerning the fuel's level of volatility. The TSBC reported their fuel should have been identified as a level two hazard on a scale of levels one to three. Trucks that initially transported the oil from Bakken to a rail-loading warehouse in North Dakota stated the fuel was at level two, while rail car officials identified it as level three.
Questions were first raised when the devastation of the crash came to light - 47 passengers died, while many of the railcars did not survive the blast. How could a low grade oil create such a calamitous explosion?
The TSBC's Ross told the New York Times investigators are looking at samples of fuel while inspecting the overall event, which will certainly lead the board to ramp up safety recommendations.
"We are interested in knowing more about the product," he told the WSJ.
Additionally, Canadian investigators are considering whether the railcars used to transport the oil meet safety requirements. They wrote Canadian and U.S. regulators last week to ask for suitable procedures in correctly labeling crude oil.
According to the Energy Information Administration, transporting crude oil by train has become a widespread practice in the recent past. More than 34 million barrels of oil traveled to United States refineries on the rails in 2012-five times higher than the year before.
