Railroads Recognize Leadership in Hazmat Safety

Washington, D.C. - October 20, 2021 - The Association of American Railroads (AAR) presented BNSF's Patrick Brady with the 2021 Holden-Proefrock Award for career achievement in the area of hazmat safety and announced the 2020 Non-Accident Release (NAR) Grand Slam Awards. The awards are given annually to individuals, shippers and railroads operating in hazardous material fields.

Patrick M. Brady joined Burlington Northern, now BNSF, 30 years ago where he managed most of the emergency and hazardous materials incident responses for the railroad early in his career. He currently serves as General Director of Hazardous Material Safety where he has built and manages the rail emergency response team. On an industry-wide level, Brady chairs the AAR Hazmat Committee which has successfully navigated multiple key safety regulatory proceedings during his tenure and is the Hazmat Committee's representative on the AAR Tank Car Committee.

At BNSF, Brady has also worked closely with the first responder community to ensure that they have access to the equipment, training and information necessary to safely manage an incident. In 2007, Brady launched the BNSF Fire Trailer program which provides fire suppression support to local departments and has since grown to a fleet of 33 fire trailers staged across the BNSF network. Additionally, he served on the taskforce to develop the AskRail mobile app, which puts timely, accurate industry-wide information about rail car contents in first responders' hands to help them safely manage incidents.

The Holden-Proefrock Award is named in honor of Roy Holden, a former AAR employee and an innovator in tank car design, damage assessment and safety, and Art Proefrock, a former Hulcher Emergency Services employee who pioneered hazardous materials transportation emergency response.

The NAR Grand Slam Award is presented annually to companies that are exemplary shippers of hazardous materials. An award winner must have been recognized by at least four Class I railroads and have had zero non-accident releases involving their shipments the previous calendar year. A hazardous materials non-accident release is an unintentional release of a hazardous material while in transportation, but not involving an accident.

The 2020 NAR Grand Slam Award was presented to 17 companies. They are Centennial Energy LLC, Elbow River Marketing LTD, ERCO Worldwide, Factor Gas Liquids Inc., Hunt Crude Oil Supply Company, LLC, International Chemical CO, Kemira, Messer LLC, Methanex Methanol Company LLC, Moose Jaw Refinery Partnership, MUREX LLC, PBF Holding Company LLC, Reagent Chemical & Research, Inc., RPMG, Inc., The Andersons INC, Veolia North America Regeneration Services LLC, and Westlake Chemical.

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