On Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern 38-car freight train derailed in the vicinity of East Palestine, Ohio, a municipality of about 5,000 people. Though there were no fatalities or reported injuries in the derailment, the freight cars had been carrying chemicals that were agitated by the accident.
The wreck smoldered for days on its own, then burned even more as a result of a controlled burn by emergency crews. A plume of hydrogen chloride and phosgene was released into the air. All nearby residents, around 2,000 people, were forcefully evacuated for their safety.
Footage of the impressive wreck captured the public imagination, leading to speculation that fueled political accusations. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was damned for not addressing the crisis early on or thoroughly enough.
In what global news site Semafor has dubbed the “Ohio-or-Ukraine game,” President Joe Biden was also criticized for visiting Ukraine, where the country is in the middle of a struggle against a foreign power, but not East Palestine, where there is an ecological struggle involving fellow Americans.
Capitalizing on this opening, former President Donald Trump visited and made remarks in East Palestine on Feb. 22. Trump charged that the administration’s alleged inaction thus far had amounted to a “betrayal” and urged Biden to “get over here.” He also brought clean water to donate and bought lunch at McDonald’s for local workers.
When asked if the Norfolk Southern railroad was being held accountable for the derailment by CBS News, Trump replied, “Well, they’re going to have to be.” For its part, Norfolk Southern does not disagree with the former president’s assessment.
“We recognize we have a responsibility and we have committed to doing what’s right for the residents of East Palestine,” the company said in a statement. “We have been paying for the clean-up activities to date and will continue to do so. We are committed to thoroughly and safely cleaning the site and we are reimbursing residents for the disruption this has caused in their lives.”
The company has declined to give an estimate of what the East Palestine derailment will cost, all told, but is publicly committed to paying that price. It has spent $6.5 million in financial assistance to the community thus far, the Wall Street Journal reported, and faces fines and other costs associated with cleanup. Its stock price has suffered during this crisis, falling from $254.84 a share on Feb. 2 to a low of $221.99 on Feb. 22, and could be further depressed as politicians and regulators weigh in.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which regulates railroads, issued its preliminary report on Feb. 23 to try to get at what actually happened that led to the derailment.
According to the report, there was something wrong with a wheel bearing that was picked up by a hot bearing detector, or HBD, which “transmitted a critical audible alarm message instructing the crew to slow and stop the train to inspect a hot axle.” During the deceleration from the train’s 47 mph speed, “an automatic emergency brake application initiated, and train 32N came to a stop” — of sorts.
The HBD relayed indicators of what was happening to external detectors along the way. From these measurements, we can see that things went from a little bit hot to on fire.
“Train 32N passed three HBD systems on its trip before the derailment,” the report states. “At MP 79.9, the suspect bearing from the 23rd car had a recorded temperature of 38°F above ambient temperature. When train 32N passed the next HBD, at MP 69.01, the bearing’s recorded temperature was 103°F above ambient. The third HBD, at MP 49.81, recorded the suspect bearing’s temperature at 253°F above ambient.”
Things only got worse after the derailment, as the report chronicles.
“On February 5, responders mitigated the fire, but five derailed … tank cars (railcars 28–31 and 55) carrying 115,580 gallons of vinyl chloride continued to concern authorities because the temperature inside one tank car was still rising,” the NTSB reports. “This increase in temperature suggested that the vinyl chloride was undergoing a polymerization reaction, which could pose an explosion hazard.”
To avoid that possible explosion and the damage it could cause, “responders scheduled a controlled venting of the five vinyl chloride tank cars to release and burn the vinyl chloride.” They also widened “the evacuation zone to a 1-mile by 2-mile area, and dug ditches to contain released vinyl chloride liquid while it vaporized and burned. The controlled venting began about 4:40 p.m. on February 6 and continued for several hours.”
The report stresses that the investigation into the cause of the accident is still ongoing, with the inference that it’s still premature to suggest future remedies.
“Surveillance video from a local residence showed what appeared to be a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment,” the report states. “The wheel bearing and affected wheelset have been collected as evidence and will be examined by the NTSB.”
Also, “the vinyl chloride tank car top fittings, including the relief valves, were also removed and examined by the NTSB on scene. The top fittings will be shipped to Texas for testing under the direction of the NTSB.”
The Environmental Protection Agency has also weighed in, saying measurements show the air in East Palestine currently is safe to breathe and that the well water is safe to drink.
However, locals and critics of the president on social media are casting doubt on those measures. In one well-circulated video, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) prodded some standing water in East Palestine with a stick, showing what appeared to be a chemical discharge.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who has visited the derailment and talked with locals, told CBS, “I’m asking they trust the government,” while admitting, “I know that’s hard.”
This derailment has also cast a spotlight on the larger problem of train derailments in the United States and the inherent dangers in the transportation of hazardous chemicals.
No method of transportation is foolproof. Trucks and cars crash. Boats lose cargo and sink. Pipelines spring leaks and fall victim to geopolitical struggles. Planes fall out of the sky.
Experts in all of these modes of transportation are under constant regulatory and market pressures to make these things less likely. The stakes are raised even further for conveying hazardous liquids and chemicals. Fortunately, there has been much progress from railroads in cutting derailments down.
The nice round number that many players in the political part of this drama, from Fox talker Tucker Carlson to Buttigieg, have thrown out there is 1,000 derailments per year. The actual number is slightly higher but not much higher, according to Federal Railroad Administration numbers.
There were 1,002 derailments in 2021, for instance, 1,013 in 2020, and 1,044 in 2022. In the last two years, you could say the number is up, as there was a 4.2% increase. But in the medium term, the derailment numbers are down, down 16% since 2019, and in the longer term, way down, falling from 2,133 derailments in 2003 to 1,044 last year.
American railroads spend over $20 billion a year maintaining their private networks. However, it’s hard to get a fix on just how much is spent on derailments.
It is hard to measure this cost, in part, because derailments can be so different. A few of them, such as the East Palestine disaster, are akin to a 20-car pileup on the freeway and thus very dangerous, expensive, and time-consuming to clear and compensate. However, the majority of derailments happen at low speeds, in train yards.
Association of American Railroads spokesman Ted Greener likens the minor derailments within rail yards to “fender benders,” albeit with much heavier vehicles.
Other bad indices for trains include train accident rates, hazmat accident rates, and the number of train accidents resulting in an evacuation. According to FRA numbers, the long-term trends on those are all downward as well. It’s possible rail investors could be in for a short-term PR disaster and a longer-term trend of increased safety.
