THE BATTALION
FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1978
h
Railroads with hazardous materials [
represent potential Texas time bombf
SHOP
■Texas railroads are running more
^'SMBins carrying increasing amounts
e 35 )f;h<\zardous materials.
('ears pLast year, there were 8,000 de-
eiinl flments in the United States. Un-
a ' 1 * less steps are taken, more life and
™ ,a fcperty endangering accidents will
re ’ ®ur, warns a Texas Transportation
nstitute specialist.
i The pattern is statistically visible,
, aid Hoy Richards, a TTI research
11 ji l® om * st at Texas A&M University
I * ; indan authority on rail transporta-
)l idost grain exports tunneled from
ttsl the nation’s midsection through
mston in 1972-73. Richards said,
lie said Texas led the nation in
lileage in 1974 with 13,306 train-
les.
Derailments, the largest class of
accidents other than grade
isings, which rose dramatically
(hose years, peaked in 1974 and
jpped some in 1975.
’his is due to railway deteriora-
coincident with heavy rnove-
jnt of grain exports,” Richards
manv
The United State s massive oil
imports, directed mainly to the
Houston petrochemical complex for
refining and processing, will con
tinue to burden track systems, he
said.
“The same things that are being
done to highways are happening to
tracks, Richards said. “They are
being subjected to heavier wheel
loads, more and longer trains, and
the lines would like to run the trains
faster, too.”
T feel about the railroads like I do
about automobile accidents. We are
fortunate — considering the
number of cars on the highway, the
types of drivers in them and road
conditions — that we have no more
fatal accidents than we do.
Nationally, in 1977, there were
8,000 derailments, he said. “Of
these, 500 involved hazardous mate
rials. Only 140 (less than two per
cent) ruptured,” he said. “But we re
sitting on a time bomb.”
“I would hope this administration
will come up with a National Trans
portation Policy, something we do
not have. Perhaps it would allow in
tegration of the private railroad sys
tem with the public highways and
waterways to form a national trans
portation system.”
Citing a 1977 TTI prepared report
to Gov. Dolph Briscoe and the
Legislature on state railway safety,
he said that Texas in 1972 shipped
46 percent of the United States’ ton
nage of chemicals and allied prod
ucts. Texas’ share of petroleum and
coal products was 20 percent.
Texas ranks in the top five per
cent nationally in every accident
category.
Possiole solutions, Richards said,
should not place economic pressure
on railroads that would force more
cargo to highway carriers. Richards
and Patrick Collins, TTI research
associate, said the tradeoff would be
four to six truck equivalents for each
railroad tank car.
“Let’s assume,” Richards said,
“that (jpublic sentiment demands a
fail-safe railway system. This allows
no derailments, gravel, empties or
anything else. With the cost borne
tion
Twin chimps survive in Tanzania
despite hardships of wilderness
by the private carrier, the price of
railroad service would have to dou
ble, at a minimum.
“If that happens, it would drain a
very large portion of hazardous ma
terial cargo from the railroads to
larger and larger trucks.”
Other TTI specialists agree that
the highway vehicle spectrum is
growing at the ends. Autos are get
ting smaller and tank trucks larger,
hardly a life-prolonging traffic mix.
Collins estimated truck
movements would increase by a fac
tor of four to six. Highway safety
would be compromised, unless
more public funds were put into
highways for truck lanes.
“However, the dollar comparison
for that versus railroad track im
provement is out of balance,”
Richards said. “We re talking about
improving 75,000 miles of track. ”
Another approach, he said, “is to
tell the chemical industry to design
a container to handle and move
hazardous materials safely, with the
same derailment factor we now
have. Cost would be significant.
Still another alternative he ad
vanced — admittedly unpopular —
is public ownership of roadbeds,
“with railways just like highways
and waterways, constructed and
maintained by the government.
etfrf
United Press International
WASHINGTON — Although a
nan mother with twin babies has
[hands full, a chimpanzee in the
ie position has even more to
fie.
Jane Goodall, one of the
orld’s leading authorities on chim-
fcees, has been watching in Tan-
»ia the only known chimp twins
in the wild. She is amazed the
its have survived.
;“I gave them a week and they’re
six months old,” Dr. Goodall
Wednesday at a briefing at the
Jional Geographic Society which
jps finance her work. “This
tother has to face the most terrific
blems in handling two babies.”
|E!nlike human babies, chimpan-
depend almost exclusively on
Ither’s milk for three years. This
wherever the mother goes so
I the children.
rtth one infant, a chimp mother
nages easily with the baby either
her back or clinging to her
■nach, but “for a mother to climb
hrough the trees, to jump from one
I another, to keep up with big
moving fast from one food
to another with two babies to
is a terrific problem,” Dr.
11 said.
tiny chimps’ survival also was
med by a cannibalistic pair of
— mother and daughter —
led several newborn chimps
it years. The older of the two
pregnant and no longer at-
le young.
!, as Dr. Goodall watched,
ighter chimp tried to snatch
ns from their mother high in
tree. But the twins and their
escaped when she made a
leap to another tree,
twins, named Gyre and
!, were unusually small at
Dr. Goodall said they didn t
i their mother very well and
>uld tend to hold on to the
Both would fall off and start
lissa, the mother, would
them up then they’d start to
in. She would sit down and
: them and she was clearly
d and bewildered and she
know what to do.
1 then to make matters worse
the babies hurt its foot badly,
n’t know how. Every time the
r moved, the baby hurt and
led. The screaming of one
;t off the other twin. Melissa
confused, all she could think
fo was to climb a tree and
a nest, a platform to lie on
ig in the branches.”
Goodall and her assistants at
lia s Gombe Stream National
Park fed the mother a few bananas
laced with antibiotics, which go to
the infants through the milk. The
foot finally healed and now both
twins are healthy, although they are
still small for their age.
“They’re backward in the de
velopment of their behavior,” she
said. “A normal 6-month-old infant
is starting to walk and the twins are
quite content to sit with the mother.
But they’re alert, they’re look
ing around and they re interested in
things. They’re just unbelievable.,
Every time I see them I can’t be
lieve they’re real.
Dr. Goodall is director of the
Gombe Stream Research Center
and a visiting professor of zoology at
the University of Dar es Salaam.
Her appearance at the National Ge
ographic Society opened a three-
week lecture tour in the United
States.
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