Crude oil hauled by rail needs to be shipped in stronger tank cars and on safer routes, transportation investigators in the U.S. and Canada said following a series of accidents in North America . The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Canadian Transportation Safety Board issued the recommendations today as part of a probe into the July derailment of rail cars filled with oil in Lac-Megantic, Quebec . The accident ignited an inferno that killed 47 people spending a Saturday night in the town’s center. “The large-scale shipment of crude oil by rail simply didn’t exist 10 years ago, and our safety regulations need to catch up with this new reality,” NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said in a statement citing concerns about “the major loss of life” in accidents involving oil transported by rail. The Canadian agency recommended tougher standards for the type of tank car involved in the […]