The recent train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio on February 3 has been a continuing story of massive issues, from the chemical-laden freight that was turned over to the state of the train itself. The doomed train, consisting of more than 150 cars, 9,300 feet in length, and 18,000 tons, was filled with toxic chemicals which spilled and then had to be dealt with. Lawsuits against Norfolk Southern are piling up nearly two weeks after a train derailed in eastern Ohio, releasing those toxic chemicals and forcing thousands of locals to evacuate.
On Wednesday, the plaintiffs’ law firm Morgan & Morgan filed a class-action suit in federal court in Ohio on behalf of two women living in East Palestine, near the derailment. The Ohio village of about 4,700 people sits near the Pennsylvania state line and about 50 miles west of Pittsburgh, CBS News reported
“Norfolk Southern discharged more cancer-causing Vinyl Chloride into the environment in the course of a week than all industrial emitters combined did in the course of a year,” the suit alleges, claiming that the company chose to burn the vinyl chloride, turning it into a highly toxic gas, rather than disposing of it safely. “From chemicals that cause nausea and vomiting to a substance responsible for the majority of chemical warfare deaths during World War I, the people of East Palestine and the surrounding communities are facing an unprecedented array of threats to their health,” Morgan & Morgan attorneys said in a statement.
The suit claims that “thousands of residents” in rural eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania could have been exposed to the toxins. At least six other lawsuits have been filed against the company claiming negligence and seeking payment for property damage, economic loss suffered by business owners and exposure to hazardous chemicals, CBS noted.
But the contamination of the area by the toxic chemicals is not the only concern about the one-train crash. Some are coming forward to state that the size and structure of the train by the railroad might be to blame for the derailing.
Workers for Norfolk Southern are now admitting that they had concerns about the train’s size before the accident and that those concerns probably contributed to both the derailment and an earlier failure after the train left Illinois on February 1, according to CBS News. One employee tells the news source that “we shouldn’t be running trains that are 150 car lengths long,” and that “it’s highly probable the impacts of the derailment would have been avoided” if the train hadn’t been so heavy. The train might pose a safety danger, according to two employees who talked with Motherboard.
The former director of the Federal Railroad Administration, Sarah Feinberg, agrees that the size of the train would have been a concern, Wayne Dupree noted.
“I was not satisfied with the lengths of the trains, and they were 80 or 90 cars long,” she says of her tenure at the FRA. The derailed one had 151 cars. Even while adding more cars might make trains more efficient overall for railroad firms, it takes more time for staff to examine such a train. Shorter inspection times in the name of such efficiency, according to Jared Cassity, national legislative director for one of the Norfolk Southern workers unions, made it likely that the car that derailed earlier this month hadn’t been examined “in some time.”
The accident, which was followed by a controlled burn that released a toxic plume into the sky, was, in his words, “expected” given the extra length and weight as well as the presence of all of the hazardous materials. “That will happen again if nothing changes.”
The railroad company has stated that the length of the train was known, managed, and should have been stable. According to the company, the weight distribution of this train was uniform all throughout, and it had a locomotive in the middle of the train that “helps manage the dynamic forces of the train and reduces occurrences of broken knuckles,” according to a statement from Norfolk Southern to WKBN. Norfolk Southern also notes that some of the claims being made about the train’s size are “simply false.”
Norfolk Southern was in the news again Thursday when one of its trains derailed in Van Buren Township, Michigan. Roughly 30 cars came off the track, including one containing liquid chlorine, but local public safety officials said on Facebook that there is no evidence of a chemical spill. State and local authorities are investigating, according to CBS News Detroit.
Norfolk Southern representatives failed to appear at a town hall Wednesday night, citing “growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community.” The company announced this week it would create a $1 million fund to help the community recover, calling it a “down payment on our commitment to help rebuild.”
Ohio’s attorney general, Dave Yost, told Norfolk Southern his office is considering suing the rail operator.
