Bellingham Comments from Digital Recorder - EISs for the Proposed ...

GATEWAY PACIFIC TERMINAL EIS SCOPING HEARING VOL. II
COURT REPORTER: BETH DRUMMOND PROCEEDING DATE: October 27, 2012
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1 increasing frequency of the very long trains at rail
2 crossings, may lead to delay in emergency medical services
3 and to increased accidents, trauma, and death.
4 Imagine for a moment that your spouse or parent
5 had a heart attack or that your child had had a
6 life-threatening trauma or that your house is on fire.
7 And the ambulance or fire train -- or fire truck
8 waits for six or seven minutes at a train crossing, it could
9 absolutely mean the difference between life and death.
10 And sometimes, it's longer than that because the
11 trains stop. So we respectfully request that the EIS be
12 expanded to include a comprehensive Health Impact
13 Assessment, and we'll submit a larger document as a group of
14 physicians.
15 With regard to the EMS, some principal questions
16 we'd like to have examined would be:
17 For how many towns and cities along the entire
18 rail corridor are the hospitals located across rail lines
19 for a major portion of the population?
20 And how many at-grade rail crossings are there
21 along the entire rail corridor?
22 And how many people are affected at each crossing
23 based on current and projected population, as shown in
24 relevant planning documents?
25 How many of these rail crossings are unprotected?