The truck crash that sparked a massive fire of rail tankers near the St. Johns Bridge is a “wake up call” for shipping crude oil from the Midwest, an environmental group said.
Dan Serres with the Columbia Riverkeeper told KOIN 6 News he thinks if something more volatile than asphalt would have been in the parked rail cars the consequences could have been much higher.
The driver, Andrew John Lambert, worked for Kenan Advantage Group and was hauling gasoline when the crash happened, Portland police said on Monday.
The 41-year-old from Vancouver was headed west on Highway 30 when he went off the road on the right side, went down an embankment , flipped over and hit a power pole and then the train tankers parked on the tracks. Investigators believe Lambert died immediately. Fuel leaked underneath the parked train cars.
Serres said a crash involving oil tankers might have caused a much larger fire that would have burnd much longer.
That’s why, he said, the effort to bring oil-by-rail to the Port of Vancouver should be avoided at any cost.
Abbi Russell with the Port of Vancouver told KOIN 6 News their top priority is the safety of things moving in and out of the port.