Lawyers want East Palestine residents to wait for details of $600 million derailment settlement
The lawyers who negotiated a $600 million settlement with Norfolk Southern over the disastrous 2023 derailment of that Ohio railroad want residents to talk to them before they decide the historic deal isn’t enough.
They said Wednesday that the settlement for everyone within 20 miles of the East Palestine disaster is larger than any derailment settlement ever made public, including the worst in recent history when a train carrying crude oil spun out of control rolled downhill, killing 47 people. in Lac Megantic, Canada, in 2013.
Apocalyptic images of the derailment in the small town on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border inspired calls for rail safety reforms and exposed enduring fears for the community. Three days after a toxic mix of chemicals caught fire in the crash, officials released a huge plume of black smoke over eastern Palestine when they blew open five tankers of vinyl chloride and burned the chemicals because they feared an explosion.
On Wednesday, attorneys moved to address residents’ fears that the settlement was not enough, saying compensation would vary based on the severity of the derailment’s impact on each person. Several residents said after the settlement was announced Tuesday that they worried that the money, once distributed among many, would not be enough to cover potential future health care costs if they later developed cancer.
“This isn’t like your AT&T-settlement where everyone gets two dollars. No, this is very individual in terms of how close people were to the impact area, what their current situation is, whether they own, whether they rent – all kinds of criteria,” said Jayne Conroy, a principal attorney at Simmons Hanly. Conroy.
That formula dictating how much each person receives is still being written, they said. And a federal judge would have to grant preliminary approval to the deal before these rewards could be calculated.
The deal does include a provision to compensate people for personal injuries. Accepting that money would eliminate a future claim for cancer or some other horrible disease that might develop, but area residents can decline the health care money and still receive compensation for property damage.
Mike Morgan, one of the other lead attorneys in the case against Morgan & Morgan said this settlement wasn’t really intended to compensate for crippling health problems that might arise later. But he said none of the experts consulted during the trial expect this derailment to lead to massive cancer clusters, even with all the chemicals that spilled and caught fire — or even the vinyl chloride that was deliberately released and left for three days was later burned to prevent five tankers from disappearing. exploding.
Morgan said it’s important to remember that this lawsuit wasn’t about the massive cleanup costs the railroad has already spent more than $1.1 billion on. Separate lawsuits have been filed by the state and federal governments to address this.
Gas station owner Anna Doss said she is optimistic this settlement will help the city move forward, although she is waiting for details on how the money will be distributed. Like many others in the city, Doss is willing to try to put the derailment behind her, even as her business struggles. Last year she lost a quarter of her revenue, and now her retirement plan is up in the air because her niece, who planned to take over the businesses, has moved to Florida.
“We just pray that everything goes well and that everything that has been done will help build a better community,” Doss said.
Of course, no one in East Palestine is immune from fears that the derailment could lead to major health problems years from now. Tammy Tsai choked up as she said she and her husband had decided to cash in their retirement to move out of fear of staying in the “toxic community.”
“We are fortunate to have a number of pensions,” she said. “But what about the people who don’t? Who want to leave here, who are sick?’
The fact that the settlement included several larger towns around eastern Palestine led Tsai to imagine that residents would walk away with only small pieces of the larger figure. She is concerned about the possible worsening of the disease in the coming years and that residents will then have difficulty receiving compensation.
She believed that the settlement would only benefit Norfolk Southern and would barely make a dent in their pockets.
Railroad company CEO Alan Shaw acknowledged the deal would remove some of the financial uncertainty for his company, but he argued during a presentation to investors Wednesday that it would also be good for the city and help people recover.
“This provides financial relief to individuals and eligible businesses that they can apply in a manner of their choosing,” Shaw said. “What it really does is it addresses a lot of the financial risk that was there for Norfolk Southern and our shareholders and takes that tail risk out.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a new op-ed Wednesday that what the country really owes East Palestine — more than monetary payments — is making its railroads safer. He again urged Congress to pass a package of reforms proposed after the derailment that would set strict standards for inspections and track detectors, while giving authorities the power to impose much higher fines.
“If we get this right, their community will be known not only for the derailment that upended daily life there, but also for the life-saving reforms that followed,” Buttigieg said.
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Former Associated Press reporter Brooke Schultz contributed to this report from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.