Officials say no hazardous material was leaked in latest Norfolk Southern trail derailment in Ohio
Authorities have said the latest Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio on Saturday did not result in the spill of any hazardous materials and does not pose a health risk.
However, more than 1,500 Clark County residents lost power and those within 1,000 feet of the site were told to shelter-in-place “out of an abundance of caution.”
The 22-car derailment came just a month after a massive 38-car accident in eastern Palestine grabbed international headlines on February 3 and marks the company’s fourth derailment in the state in less than five months.
Ohio is one of the top four states in terms of train derailments, with 128 derailments between 2018 and 2021. according to the US Department of Transportation..
Authorities assured residents that the latest Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio on Saturday did not result in the release of any hazardous materials.
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown (pictured in February at the site of the East Palestine derailment) described the latest accident as “unacceptable” and last week introduced new legislation to improve rail safety.
Clark County officials say about 20 of the southbound train’s 212 cars, including four tankers, derailed around 4:45 p.m. Saturday.
All four tankers contained non-hazardous materials, which are not considered hazardous. Two carried residual amounts of diesel exhaust fluid and two others had residual amounts of polyacrylamide water solution, they said.
It happened on Ohio 41, near the Prime Ohio Business Park near Springfield, which is about 46 miles west of the state capital of Columbus.
Sandusky, Steubenville, East Palestine and now Springfield, all in the last five months. This is unacceptable,ā Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown wrote on Twitter.
Brown is now one of the few leaders who wants to see stricter legislation restricting the way Norfolk Southern and other rail companies can operate.
“That’s why we must pass my bipartisan Railroad Safety Act now,” he added. Brown introduced the legislation with Republican JD Vance and four other senators last Wednesday.
We know that overheated wheel bearings have been the cause of most [derailments], we are not doing the inspections well. That will change,” Brown said on ABC’s This Week on Sunday.
Brown also blamed rail companies like Norfolk Southern that have tried to cut costs by laying off engineers who can oversee the trains.
“The railways want to be able to drive 150 or 200 carriages through a community with one engineer, one staff member, because they keep laying people off,” he added.
He also said he wants inspections imposed on operators.
“We want to see more inspections, these inspections because they have laid off so many workers, they are really just superficial inspections on the rails, on the wagon coupling, on the locomotives,” he added.
“When you lay off a third of the workforce, you are clearly compromising the work that those workers are doing.”
The train had about 22 cars that derailed. Four tanker trucks contained non-hazardous waste material, including residual amounts of diesel exhaust fluid and residual polyacrylamide water solution
Ohio authorities said there was no indication of any public health risk from the derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train.
Some 1,500 Clark County residents were without power after Saturday’s derailment.
Ohio authorities said there was no indication of any public health risk from the derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train, which occurred between Dayton and Columbus.
As a precaution, residents living within 1,000 feet were asked to shelter in place and responding firefighters deployed the county’s hazmat team as a precaution, but authorities said early Sunday that the train was not carrying hazardous materials and that there were “no indications of injuries.” or risk to public health at this time.’
A team from Norfolk Southern, the hazardous materials team and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency “each independently examined the accident site and verified that there was no evidence of a spill at the site,” authorities said.
Norfolk Southern said no hazardous materials were involved, county officials said earlier.
County officials also say that environmental officials have confirmed that the derailment is not near a protected water source, meaning there is no risk to public water systems or private wells.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tweeted Saturday night that Federal Railroad Administration staff had briefed him on the derailment and had also spoken with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
“No hazardous material releases have been reported, but we will continue to monitor closely and FRA personnel are on the way,” Buttigieg said.
DeWine said Saturday night that President Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg had called on him to “offer help from the federal government.”
Amid the train wreck, hazardous materials were released into the air, soil, and nearby surface waters on February 3.
The derailment of the Norfolk Southern train a month ago in the town of East Palestine caused a massive fire and caused the evacuation of thousands of residents
On February 3, 38 cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train in East Palestine in northeastern Ohio near Pennsylvania derailed and several of the train cars carrying hazardous materials burned.
Although no one was injured, nearby neighborhoods in both states were in danger.
The accident prompted the evacuation of about half of the town’s roughly 5,000 residents, an ongoing multi-governmental emergency response, and lingering concerns among villagers about long-term health impacts.