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On the right track?

Montana Rail Link derailed another coal train, sending several thousand tons of coal near or into the Clark Fork River near the confluence with Lake Pend Oreille. Thirty miles southeast is Sandpoint, Idaho, where BNSF wants to put in a new bridge across Lake Pend Oreille.

So again BNSF Railway runs two more full page advertisements in The Spokesman-Review (Aug. 18 and Aug. 20) outlining their safety program with the caption of “On the right track!”

Do you wonder, with trains falling off the tracks and railroad/highway crossing lights and gates malfunctioning, where is the federal regulatory agency that has the responsibility for railway safety? We could ask Washington’s 5th District Congresswomen why, but she has problems of her own. The last 12 years, I thought that McMorris Rodgers was a roofing company.

A hazardous material or crude oil railroad derailment within “Spokane’s East/West Critical Commerce Zone” would severely impact downtown, hospitals, hotels, Spokane River and I-90 highway traffic of which there are very few highway detour options; also, the only east-to-west railroad transportation route in the U.S. from Oregon to Canada.

David Haderlie

Liberty Lake

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