NORFOLK, Va. — Norfolk Southern Corp. has earned the TRANSCAER (Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response) National Achievement Award for 2010.
This is the eleventh time – and the ninth consecutive year – that Norfolk Southern has earned the award that recognizes extraordinary achievement in support of efforts to prepare communities to respond to a possible hazardous materials transportation incident.
In 2010, Norfolk Southern held multiple large-scale training events in Asheville, N.C.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Johnson City, Morristown, and Martin, Tenn.; Mobile, McIntosh, Selma, Jasper, and Muscle Shoals, Ala.; and Rural Retreat, Va. Along with other Norfolk Southern TRANSCAER events throughout the year, these training events reached out to 92 cities and counties in adjoining states and resulted in the training of 4,890 emergency responders.
Norfolk Southern chose the training locations based on key hazardous materials routes as well as requests from shippers of hazardous materials and local emergency responders. Training events included classroom instruction, hands-on training, and table-top and actual drills.
TRANSCAER is a voluntary national outreach effort that focuses on assisting communities to prepare for and to respond to a possible hazardous material transportation incident. TRANSCAER members consist of volunteer representatives from the chemical manufacturing, transportation, distributor, and emergency response industries, as well as government.