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Last month, 27 emergency responders completed a tank car safety course sponsored by Union Pacific Railroad. The five-day, 40-hour course was held at the Association of American Railroad’s Transportation Technology Center Inc. (TTCI) in Pueblo, Colo.

The course included classroom training on various subjects, such as how to use resource materials describing tank car types and fittings during an emergency. Students also received hands-on training to practice assessing tank car damage, making repairs, transferring hazardous materials from damaged equipment, wearing protective clothing and using self-contained breathing apparatus.

As a “final exam,” students participated in simulated hazardous-material accidents to understand how to work with a railroad during an emergency and be safe on railroad property.

Since 1986, UP has sponsored 37 training courses at TTCI involving more than 750 emergency responders and more than 130 UP response personnel. Since 1979, the railroad has offered haz-mat training programs to communities that have been attended by more than 160,000 emergency responders.