The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB, in its English acronym; federal agency) has announced on Tuesday the opening of a “special investigation” into the private company Norfolk Southern, two of whose freight trains have been involved in separate accidents in a short time. over a month in the State of Ohio. This same Tuesday, hours before the NTSB announcement, the company has also reported the fatal accident of a driver who was hit by a dump truck when the train he was driving crossed a track at an industrial complex in Cleveland, also in Ohio.
The accumulation of claims by the company -five significant accidents since December 2021, one of them, the one in East Palestine at the beginning of February, with serious environmental consequences- has pushed the NTSB to investigate current safety measures and practices. at Norfolk Southern, one of the private rail freight companies. Three of the five accidents had fatal results, with two workers dead.
“Given the number and significance of recent Norfolk Southern accidents, the NTSB also urges the company to take immediate steps to review and evaluate its safety practices, with input from employees and others. [agentes]and apply the necessary changes to improve security,” the board said in a statement.
Norfolk Southern has been under scrutiny since a train carrying hazardous materials derailed on February 3, forcing people to evacuate. Another of its merchandise derailed on Saturday near Springfield, also in the State of Ohio, without victims or evacuation protocols in this case. The sections through which the two trains traveled are also privately owned. Rail freight transport is key to the distribution of a sector, manufacturing, which represents 11.3% of the US economy. The fluidity of transport is also crucial to guarantee the proper functioning of supply chains, which have been gripped since the end of 2021 and for a good part of last year.
On the failures that led to the East Palestine disaster, the NTSB released a preliminary report last week verifying the deterioration of the aluminum protective covers used on the five tank cars loaded with vinyl chloride that derailed on February 3. On February 22, surveyors completed the damage assessment of the remaining tank cars (six) carrying other hazardous materials. According to the inspection, the impact of the derailment caused the pressure relief devices, which functioned as intended to relieve the pressure on the tank cars, to expel burning gas that could melt or consume the covers. After the incident there was a large fire and a dense cloud of black smoke that released toxic substances into the atmosphere for hours, according to a summary of the report posted on the Board’s website.
political battle
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“They feel like they can take advantage of us because we’re a small town,” a resident of East Palestine, Ohio, told CBC News after the incident. “What is transported in those wagons has more value than the lives of the residents of this community.” Criticism from those affected, reluctant to return home even though the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) immediately ruled out health risks, was increased by the delay of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in visiting the zone. Buttigieg took 17 days to travel to East Palestine, much longer than former President Donald Trump, although two days ago he publicly accepted the political error of the delay. In his day, immediately after the accident, he attributed the accident to the disdain for the security measures of the Donald Trump Administration, which reversed initiatives approved during the term of Barack Obama, but the head of Transportation has ended up assuming his responsibility for the inaction two days ago, amid a growing political row between Republicans and Democrats.
The head of Norfolk Southern, Alan Shaw, who has shown his willingness to cooperate with the Board, will appear before Congress this Thursday to answer about the safety of his trains. As an aperitif of his statement, the executive has expressed the intention of amendment. “Going forward, we are going to rebuild our safety culture from the ground up. We are going to invest more in security. This company is not like that, it is not acceptable [lo que sucede] and it will not continue to happen ”, he said this Tuesday through a statement.
The Norfolk Southern derailments have also put federal rail regulations in the spotlight. The federal investigation comes at a time when lawmakers are working on legislation that would increase rail regulations and improve safety measures. However, the bipartisan proposal has met with Republican opposition in the Senate, since it leaves the details in the hands of the Department of Transportation, that is, the Democratic Administration.
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