A Second Norfolk Southern Train Derails in Ohio

Kraig Barner, a general manager for Norfolk Southern, said on Sunday that 28 cars of the train had derailed. The company previously reported that 20 cars had derailed. He said the two crew members on board were uninjured.

Mr. Barner said that the train had four tankers that carried nonhazardous materials. Two had residual amounts of diesel exhaust fluid, and the others had residual amounts of polyacrylamide water solution. One hopper carrying nontoxic plastic pellets derailed, spilling some of them.

The rest of the train included a couple of liquid propane and ethanol tankers and cars with mixed freight, steel and finished automobiles, which did not overturn, Mr. Barner said, adding that many of the cars that derailed were empty box cars.

Nearly 50 residents were still without power on Sunday evening after the derailment took down power lines. The last train car was cleared from the crash site at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Mr. Barner said, and Norfolk Southern estimated that another 12 hours of track work remained.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known and officials said the Federal Railroad Administration will investigate. Representatives from the administration could not be reached on Sunday.

Shawn Heaton was running errands on Saturday when the gates came down at a railroad crossing. He was scrolling through his phone as he waited for the train to pass when suddenly a loud bang startled him, he said.

Mr. Heaton looked up to see metal and rocks flying as train cars began jumping off the tracks.

“It wasn’t really registering, and then I saw the cars actually going sideways,” he said. “I thought, I better get out of here because this could go really, really bad, really fast.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/05/us/ohio-train-derailment.html