Environmental groups: Philadelphia oil trains put safety at risk

CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- The oil trains that travel through Philadelphia could be putting people's health and safety at risk, especially those that live in the city's minority communities.

That's according to several environmental groups who held a news conference Tuesday in Center City.

They say that minority and low income communities in the city face disproportionate threats from oil train explosions and pollution.

The report also claims people living in these oil train blast zones are not aware of evacuation plans.

"If a catastrophic oil accident occurred in our region, nearly one million Philadelphians could be impacted and most of them wouldn't even know an evacuation plan," PennEnvironment Campaign Organizer Zoe Cina-Sklar said.

And the environmental groups want Philadelphia's Office of Emergency Management to hold community meetings to disclose evacuation and the emergency response plans.