Blog
Following high-profile oil pipeline accidents in the U.S., Democratic Senators Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Jay Rockefeller IV of West Virginia proposed legislation to improve the safety of the pipeline network that crosses the nation. Despite strong bipartisan and industry support, however, the bill has sat in the Senate…
On June 24 of last year, a semi-truck in Nevada failed to stop in time at a railroad crossing and slammed into a double-decker Amtrak passenger car killing the truck driver, the train conductor, and four passengers. The cause is under investigation, but the National Safety Transportation Board says the…
In response to recent studies indicating that roughly five percent of all drivers on our nation’s roads at any given time are using their cell phones, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) spent a year testing a pilot program in Syracuse, New York, and Hartford, Connecticut, designed to cut…
Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) may have a complicated name, but its effect is simple: severe pain and other symptoms that can have a serious impact on a patient’s quality of life. Symptoms of CRPS According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Health, CRPS typically involves chronic pain…
“Pipeline operators and their trade organizations shaped, managed and provided sizable funding for numerous safety studies conducted by the federal agency that regulates the industry” according to a Hearst Newspaper investigation. The agency is the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration which is involved in the development of national…
“Three oil-field workers were killed Monday morning in a head-on collision south of San Antonio, the third deadly crash within two weeks on a South Texas road officials said has become heavily traveled because of a boom in nearby drilling.” The crash happened on Texas 72 near Tilden, Texas, approximately…
Texas has more pipelines than any other state in the nation. The state has 47,000 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines (large), 103,000 miles of natural gas distribution pipelines (medium), and 51,000 miles of pipelines carrying hazardous liquids. Texas has 25,000 miles of pre-1970 natural gas transmission pipelines, many of…
The National Transportation Safety Board stated “the main cause of the natural gas pipeline rupture in San Bruno, California, that killed 8 people and burned 3 dozen houses last September was 54 years of bad management by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, and state and federal regulators who did…
“After a Kentucky truck crash that killed 11 people, top federal safety investigators vastly broadened their recommendations on cellphones….and said all commercial drivers should be forbidden to use them, whether hand-held or not, except in emergencies. The Department of Transportation is already considering a rule to ban the nation’s 3.7…
Although fatalities involving commercial trucks decreased significantly between 2004 and 2009, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is looking for ways to further reduce fatal truck accidents. They are concerned that the downward trend may be due more to the fact that less people drive when the economy is poor…
