Traffic Deaths Climb Amid Fracking Boom

Anastasia Pantsios | October 13, 2014 2:44 pm | Comments

While there’s been anecdotal evidence before, a new in-depth study undertaken jointly by the Houston Chronicle and Houston Public Media News 88.7 draws a strong circumstantial link between the fracking boom in Texas and the greatly increased number of highway deaths in the state. It’s based on an analysis of statistics as well as numerous interviews with people involved with trucking and traffic safety.

oiltruck — The increased volume of heavy trucks on the road, along with unlicensed trucking firms, unfit drivers and unsafe vehicles, have led to an increase in traffic fatalities in Texas fracking regions. Photo credit: Shutterstock

For decades, traffic deaths in Texas were declining just as they were all across the country, thanks to safety improvements like seat belts, airbags and child seats. Then in 2009—the same time the fracking boom begin—that trend reversed in the Lone Star state, in some areas dramatically. Texas now leads the nation in traffic deaths. And while traffic deaths overall increased 8 percent in the state from 2009-2013, deaths involving commercial vehicles exploded, growing 51 percent in that time. The study says that growth is on track to continue in 2014.

The report cautions that there’s no way to link the accidents specifically to the oil and gas industry, but adds “Records show that fatal accidents increased more in the groups of counties that make up the Permian Basin and in those affected by the Barnett and Eagle Ford shale plays, where busy roads regularly fill with tractor-trailers, tanker trucks and commercial vans hauling water, workers and supplies to oil and natural gas well sites, as well in urban counties that serve as burgeoning hubs for the oil field industry.”

Reporters found that traffic fatalities in the West Texas counties that make up the Permian Basin area increased 50 percent from 2009-2013. They increased in urban counties associated with the boom as well. In Midland County, they increased 47 percent.

There’s another problem in addition to just the increased volume of heavy-vehicle traffic The trucks themselves are unsafe and unfit to be on the road, and they are often driven by unqualified operators. Defective brakes, bald tires and unsafe drivers were identified by state troopers as potential issues leading to fatal crashes involving commercial trucks. The Houston Chronicle assembled inspection statistics showing that a higher percentage of Texas trucks fail to meet federal and state road safety standards than the U.S. average every year. And unlicensed companies continue to operate after multiple safety citations.

The newspaper relates the story of a Houston woman, Vilma Marenco, who was killed instantly in April when her Chevy Cavalier was crushed by an oilfield truck loaded with metal pipe that ran a red light. It did not have a carrier license or insurance. The company it was linked to had failed its state safety audit less than five months earlier but continued to operate. The trooper who inspected the truck after Marenco’s death found a dozen defects, three serious enough to take the truck off the road.

The report goes on to detail other horrific accidents that occurred because of lax safety regulations and fly-by-night companies employing unqualified drivers cashing in on the fracking boom: a dedicated professional trucker who had a head-on collision with another truck, loaded with flammable oil-based mud, that blew a bald tire and caused a explosion that burned both drivers beyond recognition, a motorcycle-riding man and his nine-year-old daughter sent flying into a ditch by a driver—a heavy drinker and meth user who had not been drug-tested before being hired as an oil-field driver—who failed to notice his turn signals weren’t working and who never properly inspected his truck for defects.

And while the Houston Chronicle found that the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) had increased its audits and inspections since 2009, “DPS spokesman Tom Vinger refused multiple requests by the Houston Chronicle and by Houston Public Media to interview the head of the agency’s Commercial Vehicle Enforcement service regarding the rise in crashes tied to the oil and gas boom.” That suggests that perhaps they weren’t able to keep with the growth of commercial traffic tied to fracking, a problem that’s only likely to grow with Texas’ weak regulatory climate and its exponential growth in drilling for oil and gas.

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DaveMurphy4561

Shale Boom Creates “Sand Millionaires”

hen there’s sand.

Hydraulic fracturing,
the method used to extract shale gas, entails pumping sand, water, and
additives thousands of feet into the ground to crack (fracture) the
surrounding shale to release the gas or oil.

These wells need sand, lots of sand. In 2011, 28.7 million tons of sand
was used in hydraulic fracturing according to PropTester Inc. and
Kelrik LLC. And they need a type of sand that can handle tremendous
pressure. That type is found along the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis reports that this demand has created a sand boom in communities there:

Over the past five years, a sand rush has taken hold in
west-central Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota as mining companies
seek out deposits of quartz sand suitable for “fracturing” shale rock to
release oil and gas. Since 2007, over 40 frac sand mines have either
opened or expanded their operations in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and over
two dozen new mines have been proposed. The sand ends up at the bottom
of wells in shale oil and gas fields throughout the country, including
the Bakken oilfields in western North Dakota and eastern Montana.

This boom has created jobs. Each frac mine employs 10 to 20 workers,
and each processing plants employs 40 to 50 people. These operations
also require truck drivers to move the sand from the mine to the plant
then to rail terminals.

Along with more jobs, the sand boom has increased local wealth which has blown across the area:

Last year, Windsor Permian, a Texas oil and gas firm,
paid over $16,000 an acre—well above market value—for a potential mining
site near Red Wing, Minn. In west-central Wisconsin, farmers have been
offered six-figure mineral rights fees, plus royalties of $1.50 to $3
per ton for their frac sand, said Gerald Duffy, a Twin Cities attorney
who has represented landowners in the area.

Spending by sand millionaires—along with purchases of goods and
services by mining companies, mining-related businesses and their
workers—percolates through local economies, benefiting enterprises with
little connection to mining.

That spending allows Park Service & Convenience in Maiden Rock
to stay open year-round rather than closing during the winter, when
tourist traffic slows to a trickle. And in New Auburn, the patronage of
mine workers is crucial for the Sunshine Café, a downtown diner.
Business was poor before the plants came, said owner Cindy Sarauer, who
bought the cafe a year ago; now mine workers coming off the night shift
help fill tables at breakfast. “People are working, so they have money
to come out and eat,” she said.

Local governments and taxpayers in rural areas also benefit from
increased economic activity linked to mining. Chippewa Falls saw lodging
tax receipts increase 23 percent between 2010 and 2011, in part because
of overnight stays by mining company executives and their clients,
according to city officials. And residents of the New Auburn area could
see their school district mill rates drop by 40 percent or more over the
next few years, as two new sand processing plants in the area start
paying property taxes.
socalpa

This is why we need MORE PIPELINES !
Sophia Keenesburg

What is the answer from the POLICE …. ARE THEY NOW doing more inspection of these heavy goods vehicles ?????????????

That is the only thing that it will change. Inspect and inspect and fine them if they do not got their equipment, HOS or what ever is not as it should. Let them learn the hard way by $$$$$$$$$$$$$

Bald tires and so on ==== Specially in the case of HAZMAT let them buy new tires right on the spot.
Do not let them drive another mile let the tire-company come to the truck instatt.

Give it a few months of intensive inspections along the road (also on the HOS) and you will see it turn for the better. These companies only seem to learn when it hurts them in the pocket $$
Paula

Exactly what is happening in my southwestern area of Pennsylvania…..and the reason is….the RESIDUAL WASTE trucks drive our country roads well above the speed limit recklessly. I was almost blown off the road as they passed me going the other way…literally I lost control of my car and almost ended up in a ditch before regaining control. The drilling equipment trucks drive safely and usually are slower than the speed limits. Another problem is the weight of these vehicles. The roadways have dramatically deteriorated with a crack near the outside edge of the roads on all their repetitive routes. Our area is ringed with 7 wells and includes two rivers and a stream….this water feeds into the Ohio and then the Mississippi rivers. Where does it end…selfish unwanted damage to our pristine wild area…..Who cares…our Gov. Corbett doesn’t.
Bill

From my blog:

Hydraulic fracturing has another deadly side effect: traffic fatalities. An article in West Virginia’s State Journal dated May 5, 2014, pointing out that the fracking process requires 2300 to 4000 truck trips per well to deliver mixtures of sand, water and chemicals, reports on data that found a quadrupling of traffic deaths in six active drilling states. Traffic deaths in Texas, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia have increased at an alarming rate. In drilling areas of North Dakota the boom has increased the population by 43 percent over the last 10 years while traffic deaths have increased 350 percent. Large trucks and heavy equipment choke streets and highways where fracking wells are drilled. According to a Royal Dutch Shell executive, such deadly crashes are “recognized as one of the key risk areas of the business.” …another day at the office…

From the May 2014 State Journal article:

Last year, a truck carrying drilling water in Clarksburg, W.Va., overturned onto a car carrying a mother and her two boys. Both children, 7-year-old Nicholas Mazzei-Saum and 8-year-old Alexander, were killed.

“We buried them in the same casket,” recalled their father, William Saum. He said his wife, Lucretia Mazzei, has been hospitalized four times over the last year for depression.

On the day his sons were killed, William Saum’s wife had taken the boys to the YMCA to register for swimming and karate classes. The truck didn’t stop at the stop sign, tried to make a turn and flipped onto the family car. Police issued two traffic tickets but filed no criminal charges.

Saum and his wife waited until she was 40 to have children. Now she’s 49, he said, and “it’s not like we can have any more.”
Frank Chernega

Hey, morons: you do know that traffic deaths also soar during the holiday seasons as well?

Traffic Deaths Climb Amid Fracking Boom

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