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A Union Pacific Railroad-sponsored tank car safety course has chalked up another couple dozen graduates. Twenty-four emergency response personnel from across the nation recently completed the five-day, 40-hour course held at the Association of American Railroad’s Transportation Technology Center Inc. in Pueblo, Colo.

The training program covers various topics, including how to identify tank-car types, fittings and composition during an emergency. The course also provides field exercises on assessing tank car damage, repairing damage, transferring hazardous materials from damaged equipment, and using protective clothing and self-contained breathing apparatus.

As a final exam, trainees participate in three simulated haz-mat accidents to understand how to work with a railroad and be safe on rail property during an emergency.

“Our program is designed to provide the knowledge and skills local responders need to analyze an emergency and plan a response within their capabilities,” said Dean Cooper, UP manager of hazardous material training, in a prepared statement.

Since 1986, UP has sponsored 40 courses at TTCI during which more than 700 emergency response and more than 100 railroad response personnel received training. For the past 18 years, the Class I also has offered haz-mat training programs to local communities that helped train more than 160,000 emergency response personnel.