Citation

Gleick PH. Energy 1981; 6(7): 611-619.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1981, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0360-5442(81)90016-5

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Many early risk studies suggest that one of the major contributors to the risks of using coal is the risk of transporting it from the mine to the point of use. Considerable occupational and public health and safety risks arise from each of the principal methods of coal transportation: railroads, barges, and trucks. In this paper, we reassess the hazards of transporting coal using new health and safety statistics and a methodology that identifies the most dangerous transportation modes and the most likely areas for successful mitigation of the risks.

Unit trains, devoted solely to the transportation of coal, offer significant safety advantages to the public, although both unit trains and mixed-freight trains appear to be more hazardous than the transportation of coal by barges. A significant fraction of the public risk from rail transportation of coal results from grade-crossing accidents. Programs to install safety equipment at such crossings or a program to educate the public about the dangers of railroad crossings might successfully reduce this risk.