No More Oil Trains Say Local Mayors After Derailment

"The consequences might have been severely worse if this had been in any of the cities along the tracks."

That was Arlene Burns, the mayor of Mosier speaking as she was joined by city officials The Dalles, Hood River, Spokane, and Vancouver in calling for a moratorium on oil trains rolling through the Columbia River Gorge.

They held their press conference one week after 16 cars of a 96-car train carrying Bakken crude from New Town, North Dakota to Spokane, Washington derailed.

Four of the cars burned sending smoke in the air that could be seen for miles and plunged Mosier into chaos for days.

Still, it could have been much worse as there were no injures and no homes were damaged.

"We dodged a bullet," said Burns. "We are convinced that there is no safe way to carry these volatile materials through our front yards and right by our schools."

While rail officials have suggested a bolt fastening the rail to the railroad ties may have failed, the officials from the cities say they have not been given a straight answer.

The NTSB did not even send out an investigative team, something that did not sit well with Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley.

"The NTSB would have brought a vital perspective to investigations being out out by the Federal Railroad Administration and Oregon Department of Transportation," they wrote in a letter to NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart.

"We were troubled to learn after the recent crude by rail accident in Mosier, Oregon, the National Safety Transportation Board decided against sending an investigative team."