State Rep. Stephen Kulik is coordinating efforts with Buckland town officials to help ensure a timely notification in the case of future railroad derailments.
Buckland officials have expressed concern about the delay in local notification when four cars from a Pan Am Railways grain train derailed early last Monday. The derailment happened at 2:40 a.m., but State Police were not notified until more than an hour later, and local town officials were not notified until several hours after that.
Kulik said he had someone from his office investigate the incident and agrees with town leaders that there should have been speedier notification from the railway and State Police.
“I share the town’s concerns that appropriate people in the community were not notified in a timely way,” he said.
He also said that when Pan Am notified State Police, they did not mention the derailment, just that the train was having mechanical failure.
Kulik said his main concern was that local fire and police departments were not notified and if there were an emergency call, there could have been a possible delay because of the train’s obstruction.
Kulik said he is working on several ways to address the issue in the case of future derailments. The first is that Pan Am and the State Police could adopt new protocols to immediately notify any local government in the state if there’s a derailment in their area.
He said if that’s not possible, he would like to facilitate a meeting between the town and Pan Am.
If there still isn’t a solution, Kulik said he would not be opposed to drafting legislation mandating notification in these situations, throughout the state and not just in Franklin County.
Pan Am spokesperson Cynthia Scarano said this week that they followed all internal procedures during the derailment. She wouldn’t say whether they would be open to changing procedure, but said they would be open to meeting with the town to explain their protocols.
Kulik said that it was lucky it wasn’t more dangerous cargo that was at risk, such as hazardous chemicals.
“It doesn’t change the fact that there was a derailment that wasn’t called a derailment and the appropriate local officials weren’t notified for a period of several hours,” he said. “That just doesn’t seem like it should happen.”