But the accident and fire were costly to the city. The price tag was estimated at $4.5 million in overtime and materials. Then-Mayor Martin O'Malley sued CSX for $10 million and settled the case for $2 million in 2006.
Other cities have been less fortunate.
On Jan. 18, 2002, a Canadian Pacific freight derailed in Minot, N.D. Five tank cars ruptured, releasing 147,000 gallons of anhydrous ammonia, which is used in fertilizer. The deadly cloud drifted over Minot. One person died, and 11 were seriously injured.
Twelve people died when chlorine gas escaped from tank cars after similar accidents in Macdona, Texas, in 2004 and Graniteville, S.C., in 2005. The Graniteville wreck released 60 tons of poisonous liquefied chlorine.
"The Minot crash really got us looking at the issue" of tank car safety, Kulm said.
Nearly 40 percent of all rail cargoes classified as "poisonous inhalation hazard" involve chlorine, Kulm said. Another 39 percent involve anhydrous ammonia. Most of the rest is ethylene oxide, an industrial chemical used as a sterilizing agent and in the manufacture of antifreeze.
Tom White, a spokesman for the Association of American Railroads, said the industry transports about 100,000 carloads of PIH chemicals annually in the United States.
"Overall, we move more than 30 million carloads of freight a year, so these substances make up only about one third of 1 percent of total rail volume," he said.
As the new rules were being formulated, the FRA held a series of public meetings, inviting input from the nation's freight railroads and chemical industry.
Kulm said the rail industry had sought to offer its own plans for tank car design but was asked to hold off until the FRA completed its work. "They wanted more incremental improvements; ours were more of a revolutionary type jump in safety," he said.
The new performance standards seek to increase by 500 percent the amount of energy the tankers are designed to absorb without penetration or rupture. The railroads could meet that standard with any mix of innovative designs, better materials and new technologies, and in combination with slower speeds.
The FRA rules would also set a speed limit of 50 mph for PIH tankers, a limit the agency said is already being voluntarily met by the railroads for most PIH shipments.
But until stronger tankers are on the rails, PIH speeds would be limited to 30 mph along some stretches of track that lack signaling equipment.
All told, the FRA estimated the net costs of the conversions to the railroads, when weighed against the potential savings through the prevention of deaths, injuries, property damage and litigation, at $665 million over 30 years.
If improvements already launched or planned by the industry are subtracted, the new federal rules would cost the industry $350 million over 30 years, the FRA estimated.
frank.roylance@baltsun.com
