The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution provides in part that the right of the people to bear arms shall not be infringed.
Corporations are certainly "persons" according to five people in Washington, D.C. who judge such things on the Supreme Court.
Exploding oil kills people and destroys property just like guns in the wrong hands.
Therefore corporations have a right to own and use railroad cars bearing exploding oil.
The Constitution aside, what are the "Commercial General Liability" insurance issues? What are the liability insurance issues under any and all insurance policies that might be involved?
Assume that railroad cars bearing exploding oil is going to be an accomplished fact. Many reports over the past few years seem to provide evidence in support.
If that is going to happen, can the price of exercising that right or privilege, whether under the Constitution or otherwise, be to pay for insurance coverage in amounts that will provide coverage for the injured people and damaged property they leave in their wake?
The National Transportation Safety Board held a two-day forum on April 22 and 23, 2014 on safety issues arising from rail transportation of the currently highly flammable, explosive version of crude oil. Here are links to the NTSB video presentations on the web of that forum: here for the April 22, 2014 session, at ntsb.capitolconnection.org/042214/ntsb_archive_wmv.htm, and here for the session held on April 23, 2014, at ntsb.capitolconnection.org/042314/ntsb_archive_wmv.htm.
© 2014 by Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved. No claim to original U.S. Government works.
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