North Dakota Derailment and Hazardous Materials Release Prompts Renewed…

​​WASHINGTON (June 11, 2026) - The National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday reiterated recommendations to accelerate the phase out of DOT-111 tank cars and raised concerns about the safety of DOT-117R railcars transporting hazardous materials following its investigation of a 2024 derailment in North Dakota. Additionally, the agency called for the safer placement of hazardous material cars in train consists.

The Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railroad freight train derailed 29 railcars, including 17 hazardous material tank cars, when the train traversed a broken rail caused by a track bed collapse from a degraded culvert in Bordulac, North Dakota, on July 5, 2024. The derailed tank cars included DOT-111s, DOT-112s, and DOT-117s.

Methanol, a flammable hazardous material, was released from some of the derailed tank cars and led to a pool fire. The heat from the pool fire resulted in the release of anhydrous ammonia, a poisonous-by-inhalation gas, from other derailed cars. Three of these tank cars were carrying anhydrous ammonia and showed evidence of thermal tears due to pool fire exposure. In all, nine hazardous material tank cars were breached during or after the derailment and released their contents. No injuries were reported.

This accident was one of the first major derailments involving a hazardous materials release the NTSB has investigated since the 2023 Norfolk Southern Railway derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. As in East Palestine, DOT-111 tank cars released hazardous materials in the Bordulac derailment. The Bordulac investigation found that the continued use of DOT-117R tank cars, which are retrofitted DOT-111 tank cars that have a thinner shell thickness, has not resulted in the same safety improvements as newly built DOT-117J tank cars.

​NTSB investigations have long shown that DOT-111 tank cars are dangerously inadequate, particularly because they are highly vulnerable to puncture during derailments. The NTSB has repeatedly warned that these cars do not provide adequate protection and has called for stronger tank car designs to reduce the risk of hazardous materials releases, fires, and explosions.

The NTSB has investigated train derailments where DOT-111 tank cars performed poorly going back to the 1990s. Between 2006 and 2012, alone, there were several derailments with major flammable liquids releases and fires involving DOT-111 tank cars.

On June 19, 2009, 19 DOT-111 tank cars carrying ethanol derailed, in Cherry Valley, Illinois, killing one person and injuring seven others who were stopped in automobiles at a grade crossing. The NTSB recommended that the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration require significantly more durable and puncture-resistant tank cars for transporting crude oil and ethanol. Specifically, the NTSB called for enhanced tank head and shell puncture-resistance systems, improved protection for top fittings, and bottom outlet valves designed to remain closed during accidents, even when subjected to impact forces, to prevent hazardous materials releases.

The NTSB also found that industry-recommended practices and federal requirements for the placement of cars within a train consist do not sufficiently protect against harmful interactions that can occur between adjacent tank cars carrying poison inhalation hazardous materials and flammable liquids in a derailment scenario.

The NTSB issued 11 new recommendations to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the Association of American Railroads, the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, and CPKC. The Board reiterated six recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, including phase out of DOT-111s.

​Among the new safety recommendations, NTSB recommended the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration:

• ​Issue guidance for the selection of an optimal pressure relief device based on the characteristics of the poison inhalation hazard material transported in a tank car.
• Develop and implement new thermal performance criteria for tank cars carrying liquefied gases classified as poison inhalation hazard materials that allow for no release of the tank car's lading during a fully engulfing pool fire except through reclosing pressure relief devices.
• In coordination with the Association of American Railroads, identify the appropriate amount of separation between tank cars transporting poison inhalation hazard materials, including anhydrous ammonia, and those transporting flammable hazardous materials to reduce the likelihood of poison inhalation hazard tank cars being exposed to pool fire condition​s.
  

​​NTSB recommended the Association of American Railroads revise the formula for required pressure relief device flow capacity and the requirements for pressure relief devices and thermal protection systems to ensure the survivability of tank cars carrying poison inhalation hazard materials in engulfing pool fire conditions.

NTSB recommended CPKC revise its culvert inspection procedures to require every culvert to be inspected internally, either on foot when safe or by using technology, such as cameras or remotely operated vehicles.

Railroad Investigation Report 26-07, the safety recommendations and the docket​ are available online.