By JOSH FUNK and JOHN SEEWER (Associated Press)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal investigators are opening a wide-ranging investigation into one of many nation’s greatest railroads following a fiery derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border final month and a number of other different accidents involving Norfolk Southern, together with the demise of a prepare conductor Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board stated on Tuesday it’ll start a broad take a look at the corporate’s security tradition — the primary such investigation throughout the rail trade since 2014. The NTSB stated it has despatched investigation groups to look into 5 vital accidents involving Norfolk Southern since December 2021.
The company additionally urged the corporate to take fast motion to assessment and assess its security practices.
The Federal Railroad Administration additionally introduced its personal investigation of Norfolk Southern on Tuesday. The FRA will difficulty a public report after conducting a 60-day security evaluation, in keeping with a launch from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
In the discharge, the FRA stated Norfolk Southern should transcend the steps it introduced yesterday and take actions “that match the severity of recent incidents.”
Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw pledged to carry a sequence of companywide security conferences Wednesday — in the future forward of when he’s scheduled to testify in Congress at a listening to on the East Palestine derailment.
“Moving forward, we are going to rebuild our safety culture from the ground up,” he stated in an announcement. “We are going to invest more in safety. This is not who we are, it is not acceptable, and it will not continue.”
In response to the Ohio derailment, the railroad on Monday introduced plans to enhance using detectors positioned alongside railroad tracks to identify overheating bearings and different issues.
Investigators with the NTSB stated the crew working the prepare that derailed Feb. 3 outdoors East Palestine, Ohio, received a warning from such a detector however couldn’t cease the prepare earlier than greater than three dozen vehicles got here off the tracks and caught hearth.
Half of the city of about 5,000 folks needed to evacuate for days when responders deliberately burned poisonous chemical compounds in among the derailed vehicles to forestall an uncontrolled explosion, leaving residents with lingering well being considerations. Government officers say exams haven’t discovered harmful ranges of chemical compounds within the air or water within the space.
Within the trade, Norfolk Southern has had a powerful repute for being a protected railroad over time, stated Christopher Barkan, director of the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center on the University of Illinois.
FRA statistics present accidents involving Norfolk Southern is down since 2019, however the price of accidents is up over the previous decade. The 119 derailments involving Norfolk Southern final 12 months was the bottom quantity within the final decade. Industrywide, there have been greater than 1,000 derailments final 12 months.
But strain has been mounting on the rail firm within the aftermath of the East Palestine catastrophe.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg informed the nation’s freight railroads in February to right away act to enhance security whereas regulators had been specializing in strengthening security guidelines. Buttigieg stated the division will maintain the railroad accountable for any security violations that contributed to the Feb. 3 crash.
President Joe Biden stated on Twitter after the derailment that the previous sample of railroads resisting security rules should change and that Congress ought to help the hassle to enhance security.
Even although authorities information exhibits that derailments have declined lately, there have been nonetheless 1,049 of them final 12 months.
While most don’t trigger any main issues, of the 5 accidents NTSB pointed to involving Norfolk Southern because the finish of 2021, three resulted within the deaths of three staff.
On Saturday, nobody was harm when a Norfolk Southern freight prepare derailed close to Springfield, Ohio.
In the newest incident Tuesday, a prepare and a dump truck collided at a metal plant in Cleveland, killing the prepare conductor who was standing on the surface of a automobile, authorities stated. The firm stated the reason for that accident was not but identified.
Eddie Hall, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union that represents the employee who was killed, stated the demise is a reminder of the necessity for security enhancements.
“All railroad accidents are avoidable,” Hall stated. “This collision underscores the need for significant improvements in rail safety for both workers and the public.”
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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”