BNSF Engineer Who Manned Exploding North Dakota "Bomb Train" Sues Former Employer

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A Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) employee who worked as a locomotive engineer on the company’sย oil-by-rail train that exploded in rural Casselton, North Dakota in December 2013 has sued his former employer.ย 

Filed in Cass County, the plaintiff Bryan Thompson alleges he โ€œwas caused to suffer and continues to suffer severe and permanent injuries and damages,โ€ including but not limited to ongoing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)ย issues.

Thompson’s attorney,ย Thomas Flaskamp, told DeSmogBlog he โ€œdelayed filing [the lawsuit until now] primarily to get an indication as to the direction of where Mr. Thompson’s care and treatment for his PTSD arising out of the incident was heading,โ€ which he says is still being treated by aย psychiatrist.

The lawsuit is the first of its kind in the oil-by-rail world, the only time to date that someone working on an exploding oil train has taken legal action against his employer using theย Federal Employers’ Liability Act.

BNSF Engineer Casselton Lawsuit

Image Credit: State of North Dakota District Court; East Central Judicialย District

โ€œRun for Hisย Lifeโ€

In the aftermath of the Casseltonย explosion, rail industry consultant Sheldon Lustig told the Associated Press that freight trains carrying oil obtained viaย hydraulic fracturing (โ€œfrackingโ€)ย in North Dakota’sย Bakken Shaleย basin are akin to โ€œbomb trains,โ€ putting the now oft-used term on the map for the firstย time.ย 

Since Casselton, several other oil-by-rail explosions and disasters have ensued in the U.S.ย 

Thompson experienced the wrath of an exploding โ€œbomb trainโ€ up close andย personal.ย 

Flaskamp toldย The Forum newspaper in Fargo, North Dakota that Thompson had to โ€œrun for his lifeโ€ to escape the train he was manning once it derailed after colliding with an oncoming grainย train.

โ€œBehind him, tank cars were starting to derail, catch fire and explode,โ€ Flaskamp told The Forum of Thompson, who is in his 30s and is currently in school to obtain a teachingย degree.

The plaintiffs allege BNSF, owned by multi-billionaire Warren Buffett, violated the Federal Employers’ Liability Act in multipleย ways.

They include โ€œfailing and neglecting to provide [Thompson] with a reasonably safe place to workโ€ and โ€œfailing to warn [him] of the dangers of hauling explosive oil tank railcars and the tendencies of these railcars to rupture and explode upon sufferingย damage.โ€

BNSF Employee Casselton Lawsuit

Image Credit: State of North Dakota District Court; East Central Judicialย District

BNSF‘sย Knowledge

In the aftermath of the Casselton explosion, DeSmogBlog reported that the company that owned the terminal intended to receive that oilย โ€” which owns a facility in Missouri that off-loads the oil into barges in the Mississippi River โ€” notified the Missouriย government on its permit application that the oil it planned to handle has high levels of volatileย chemicals.ย 

Put another way, BNSF may have known quite a bit more about the danger of carrying Bakken fracked oil than it ever told Thompson. And that will likely serve as a contentious point in the case as it snakes its way forward in Cass Countyย court.ย 

โ€œBNSF knew or should have known of the dangerous nature of the cargo it required its crews to transport and should have exercised great care in its transport,โ€ Flaskamp told DeSmogBlog. โ€œThe Answer to the complaint which will be filed by the BNSF will be telling as to their theories ofย defense.โ€

Photo Credit:ย Shawnย Rode

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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