Schumer calls for joint probe of rail crashes

ALBANY - With data showing 572 upstate rail accidents in the past seven years have caused $34 million in damage, Sen. Charles Schumer called Wednesday for a joint federal probe of recent crashes by CSX freight trains, including Monday's blaze of fuel tankers in Oneida.

It was the fifth derailment involving CSX in New York since December, which had prompted U.S. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Schumer to immediately urge a federal investigation into railroad safety across the state. National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived Tuesday at the crash site 20 miles east of Syracuse.

On Wednesday, Schumer issued the report citing 23 other rail accidents in five counties of central New York from 2000 to 2006 that caused $2.3 million in damage, even higher totals in most other regions, and called for a joint investigation by the NTSB, Federal Railroad Administration and Department of Homeland Security.