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By Rob Capobianco

Partner

Jackson Lewis LLP

The Department of Transportation has issued emergency rules to keep parked rail cars from breaking loose, following last month’s crash of untethered rail cars in Quebec that killed almost 50 people.

President Obama has reappointed Deborah Hersman to a third term as chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

The bankruptcy filing by the private owner of four Alabama toll roads and the operator of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel is not expected to have any immediate effects on freight haulers, officials said.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will propose a regulation later this year that would absolve truck drivers of their duty to file reports about truck and trailer inspections that do not find any equipment defects, a federal official said.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Thursday the Department of Transportation will propose eliminating an inspection paperwork requirement that will save the trucking industry $1.7 billion annually.

Transport Canada announced emergency railway safety rules in the wake of a deadly freight train crash in Quebec earlier this month.

U.S. trucking bankruptcies reached a two-year high of 205 during the second quarter, nearly triple the failures in the corresponding period last year, as fleets battled steadily rising costs, according to a new report.

Crashes such as the recent one in upstate New York where a trailer apparently separated from a tractor and struck a minivan with deadly consequences are rare, according to federal crash experts and investigators working on the case.

Surface trade among the United States, Canada and Mexico rose 7.5% in April from the same month last year and increased 2.4% from March, the Department of Transportation said Wednesday.