Fiery Iowa Derailment Prompts Call For Quicker Replacement Of Old Cars

A federal safety official called on the rail industry to move faster to upgrade aging rail tankers following a fiery train derailment in rural Iowa that spilled ethanol into a creek and was still burning nearly two days after it erupted. A Union Pacific train hauling 99 tankers of ethanol from a producer in Omaha, Nebraska, derailed around 1 a.m. Friday on a trestle bridge spanning Jack Creek near Graettinger, about 160 miles northwest of Des Moines. It sent off the tracks 20 tanker cars considered by federal investigators as older, less sturdy tanks set to be phased out over the next dozen years.