(Continued from page 24)

says that practice increases the potential severity of accidents like one in 2009 in the northern Illinois city of Rockford.
• On the way home from her nursing job, Chris Carter stopped at a rail crossing near Rockford as a Canadian National freight train barreled past carrying more than 2 million gallons of ethanol to Chicago.
• Unknown to the train's two crew members and the small number of waiting motorists, a section of track had washed out in a rainstorm earlier that evening.
• "I notice to my right side there's sparks like fireworks, like a sparkler," Carter said. "So that catches my eye. In my head I'm going, 'Oh my God, this is going to derail.' I could feel it, I could tell."
• The train began to come apart, its cars bouncing and colliding like toys thrown by a child. One exploded as it tumbled through the air.
• "I stood there just frozen, watching these unbelievable explosions," Carter recalled. "The concussion from the energy just blew your hair back."
• More than 20 miles away, Carter's husband and son saw the fire from their farmhouse. It looked to them like a sunrise.
• As Carter and the others ran, an older woman who injured her knee couldn't move. She cast a tiny silhouette against an enormous wall of flame. A man ran back and rescued her.
• On the other side of the tracks, one of the explosions washed over the van of Jose Tellez and his family. His wife, Zoila, was killed.
• Witness Matthew Koch told a local newspaper he saw Zoila Tellez run from the vehicle in flames and fall to her knees with her arms outstretched as if she were reaching out for help.
• Jose Tellez suffered burns, and his adult daughter, Addriana, who was five months' pregnant, lost her baby.
• In addition to the fatality, 11 people were injured, making it the nation's single worst ethanol tanker accident. Nineteen of the 114 cars derailed. Thirteen released ethanol and caught fire.
• In its final report in February, the NTSB cited the "inadequate design" of the tanker cars as a factor contributing to the severity of the accident.
• The other accident in which a release of ethanol claimed a life was a 1996 derailment at Cajon Junction in southern California. The train's brakeman, who was thrown or jumped from the locomotive, burned to death after apparently trying to crawl to safety in a creek bed.
• The Ohio derailment forced a mile-wide evacuation just north of downtown Columbus. Three tankers, each carrying 30,000 gallons of ethanol, caught fire and

(Continued on page 26)