The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday issued a series of recommendations aimed at preventing the type of freight train derailment that occurred last year in East Palestine, Ohio, when 38 cars operated by Norfolk Southern ran off the tracks. .
The safety agency also blamed Norfolk Southern for concluding that hazardous material being transported in 11 of the railcars was at risk of exploding. That conclusion led to a “vent and burn,” in which toxic chemicals were released and incinerated, resulting in huge plumes of dark smoke rising over the city.
The controlled burning forced many local residents to evacuate. The decision has since come under intense scrutiny and residents are still concerned about the possible long-term health effects of the smoke that blanketed the city.
The NTSB had previously raised questions about the need for venting and burning, and at a meeting in East Palestine on Tuesday, the agency said the railroad had “misinterpreted and ignored the evidence” in reaching that conclusion.
“Norfolk Southern and its contractors continued to assert the need for venting and flaring, although the available evidence should have led them to reevaluate their initial conclusions,” said Paul Stancil, senior hazardous materials accident investigator at the NTSB.
The safety agency meeting took place before a final report on the accident, which involved the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train after a wheel bearing overheated. The agency’s board of directors voted unanimously to adopt the findings Tuesday and plans to release the final report soon.
Railroads use detectors on tracks to identify when bearings get so hot that they can fail and cause derailments. The Norfolk Southern train traveled nearly 20 miles before passing said detector, but although that detector sounded a critical alarm, it was too late to prevent the derailment. This has led to calls for shorter distances between detectors.
In its recommendations, the NTSB said the Federal Railroad Administration should investigate the detector system and establish requirements for the equipment, including maximum distances between detectors. The NTSB also raised questions about the accuracy of the hot bearing detectors, noting that the one before East Palestine “did not reflect the actual temperature and failure condition” of the wheel bearing.
And the agency took aim at freight rail companies, asking the Association of American Railroads, the main industry group, to maintain a database on wheel bearings to assess their risks.
“Following today’s hearing,” the association said in a statement, “the railroads are reviewing the full findings and recommendations to identify the potential need for additional investigations into bearing performance.”
Eleven of the 38 derailed railcars contained hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride, a chemical used to make plastics. Days after the accident, emergency services operating under the direction of Norfolk Southern and its contractors decided to release and burn vinyl chloride from the derailed railcars. Norfolk Southern believed the temperature of the vinyl chloride was increasing, which could have triggered a chemical reaction that could lead to an explosion.
The safety board said among the factors complicating the emergency response was Norfolk Southern and its contractors, which created unnecessary alarm after the derailment by providing emergency services with inaccurate information and misrepresenting the risk of a chemical explosion.
Thomas Crosson, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern, said the decision to vent and burn was not based solely on the belief that the dangerous chemical reaction could be occurring, noting that the tank cars were damaged and that gauges on the cars appeared to show that the pressure was increasing.
“Ventilation and burning effectively prevented a potential uncontrolled explosion,” Crosson said in an email. “There was no loss of life, injury or property damage, and contractors took steps to manage the environmental impact.”
The safety board recommended Tuesday that the Federal Railroad Administration update its guidance on when to vent and burn chemicals and ensure they are distributed to emergency responders.
Freight rail transportation has become safer in recent decades, but last year the four largest U.S. freight rail companies reported an overall increase in accidents. Derailments on major tracks increased and there was a sharp increase in incidents in which a wheel bearing overheated, according to federal rail accident data.
In response to the accident, federal lawmakers introduced legislation aimed at improving railroad safety. But despite bipartisan support, the bill has not advanced. The rail industry has criticized several of its provisions, including those imposing a set number of crews and possibly establishing maximum distances between hot bearing detectors, arguing that they would make it difficult for its networks to operate effectively. Norfolk Southern and other railroads said they were taking steps to improve use of the detectors.
“Stronger rail safety standards are needed immediately,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat and sponsor of the legislation, said in a statement. He added that the report “shows that Norfolk Southern’s greed and disregard for public safety is the reason this derailment occurred.”
After the derailment, East Palestine residents said they distrusted the federal government for its slow response and what they perceived as a lack of transparency about safety measures that needed to be taken. City residents expressed frustration with officials over how quickly trains have resumed passing through the city and feared Norfolk Southern was shirking responsibility.
“Many of us, from the beginning, saw that their decision to vent and burn was primarily about finding the cheapest and quickest way to get Norfolk Southern back up and running,” said Misti Allison, 36, of East Palestine. “The NTSB has seen it too.”
Norfolk Southern has since reached a settlement with the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency for more than $310 million, most of which went to cover past and future environmental cleanup costs. About $15 million is a civil penalty related to claims that the railroad violated the Clean Water Act.
Norfolk Southern did not admit liability in the settlement.
The company said it had already set aside money to cover the costs of the deal. In total, it expects to pay $1.7 billion, including a $600 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by residents and businesses in and around East Palestine.
The East Palestine report is not the end of the NTSB’s investigations into Norfolk Southern. The agency continues to examine the company’s safety culture in an investigation it opened shortly after the East Palestine derailment.
Closing the hearing, board president Jennifer Homendy detailed for the first time several instances in which Norfolk Southern attempted to influence the investigation and failed to provide critical information to investigators.
He referred to a case in which he said text messages between Norfolk Southern employees revealed the existence of information that the transportation company had told federal investigators did not exist.
“We are the gold standard when it comes to research around the world,” Ms Homendy said. “I will not allow any entity to impugn that reputation or defame the reputation of our research staff, our top-notch research staff, which is exactly the goal.”
A Norfolk Southern spokesperson said the company “cooperated fully and ethically with the investigation, with complete transparency.”
