COLUMBUS — The nation’s major freight railroads have announced a number of steps they are taking to improve safety in the wake of last month’s fiery derailment in East Palestine, though it remains to be seen if the actions announced Wednesday will be enough to satisfy regulators and members of Congress who are pushing for changes.
Many of the proposals from the Association of American Railroads trade group focus on strengthening the network of trackside detectors the railroads use to spot problems before they can cause derailments.
The group proposes installing roughly 1,000 more of them nationwide and tweaking the way railroads use the data from them.
Norfolk Southern boss to Capitol Hill
The chief executive of one of the nation’s largest railroads is coming to a Senate hearing on the train wreck with an apology and a commitment to send millions of dollars to East Palestine.
Senators are expected to scrutinize railway safety, the response to the crash and consider imposing new safety rules.
Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw is committing $20 million to the response and voluntary safety upgrades.
But a bipartisan group of senators wants to impose new regulations on railroads.
The committee on Thursday will also hear from Ohio Republican Senator J.D. Vance and Democrat Sherrod Brown, as well as their counterpart from Pennsylvania senators, who are pushing new safety regulations called the Railway Safety Act of 2023.
No one was injured in the crash, but state and local officials decided to release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from five tanker cars, prompting the evacuation of half of the roughly 5,000 residents of the village.
Residents experience headaches, other symptoms
More than half the people in the East Palestine area surveyed by the state Health Department reported headaches, anxiety and coughing and a significant number said they were suffering from fatigue or skin irritation, pain or burning.
Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff released the latest findings of an After Chemical Exposure survey.
By the end of day March 6, a total of 320 surveys had been completed, and the top five symptoms had not changed (see illustration above).
Norfolk Southern bankrolls training center
Governor Mike DeWine says that the railroad has agreed to create a new center focused on providing additional, free training for first responders in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
“The derailment in East Palestine made clear that ensuring first responders are prepared for disasters involving hazardous materials is vitally important to the safety of communities,” DeWine said. “Often, first responders are volunteers, and their need to have the most up-to-date training and equipment is vitally important.”
The permanent location of the center will be decided later, but classes will begin on March 22 at Norfolk Southern’s Moorman Yard in Bellevue.
The railroad is also expanding its Operation Awareness and Response program, which travels the company’s 22-state network and trains first responders on how to respond safely to rail incidents.
Four of the 12 scheduled stops in 2023 will be in Ohio, where first responders will be offered hands-on training on Norfolk Southern’s safety train, which includes a dedicated locomotive, specially equipped classroom box cars, and several tank cars.