After looking into federal records following a June 3-firey crude oil train derailment in Oregon, reporters for The Oregonian and OregonLive have discovered the Union Pacific railroad has been fined more than $7 million in a two-year period.
The fines were for safety violations from 2014 through 2015. An Oregon Department of Transportation Inspection found repeated violations the day before the UP train cars carrying crude oil derailed.
“There had been a history of violations that we thought were concerning,” said Hal Gard, Oregon’s Department of Transportation rail administrator in explaining why his department made recent inspections. “That was intensive and intentional to get attention and make a point that something’s going on here and the program needs to be tightened up.”
As for UP, a company official said they stand by the safety record.
“Our safety record is very good and we stand by it,” said Justin Jacobs. “We take that obligation very seriously and we commit that to our customers and the communities in which we serve.”
