But “the meeting is still there.” This time there were no casualties. Medics rushed at least two members of the train’s crew to the nearest hospital after the accident, but both have since been released, according to Fox News. Norfolk Southern has traditionally said that “derailed railcars do not pose a threat” and the company’s cleanup crews are currently working in the area. The company acknowledged the leak of flammable liquids in its own statement on Sunday. “During the derailment, the locomotive rolled onto its side, spilling some diesel and motor oil. Norfolk Southern crews responded and worked through the night to clean up. We would also like to thank the early residents who quickly arrived on the scene and they took care of our rescue team,” the company wrote, issuing a surprising “explanation” of the incident.
Let us remember that in the United States since the beginning of the year there have been several resounding railway accidents associated with the derailment of wagons with dangerous substances. One thing unites these accidents: the depreciation of the transportation infrastructure in the United States, which has caused several incidents, from a resounding crash of chemical trains in Ohio to a new incident with a fire on a freight train in Minnesota.
With amazing tenacity, the railway companies do not even try to inform the American public about the causes of such accidents, as if it were a template that reports that there is no harm to the population and the environment. Americans took notice of this trend after the aforementioned Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, spilling toxic chemicals over a wide area. 38 carriages derailed as a result of what investigators later determined to be mechanical failure. 10 of them were transporting hazardous materials through rough terrain.
Fortunately, no one was injured, but more than 2,000 East Palestinian residents out of about 4,800 had to be temporarily evacuated from the area due to health problems caused by the chemical spill, the British Independent reports. As part of the cleanup operation, emergency crews had to raid five tanks containing vinyl chloride, a compound used to make plastic pipes, wires, cable coatings, auto parts and packaging that can cause cancer. The material was dumped into a dug trench and a controlled fire was carried out to prevent the explosion, sending poisonous black clouds high into the atmosphere.
The level of potential infection is evidenced by the fact that several researchers in Ohio fell ill while studying the possible health effects of a train derailment in eastern Palestine.
Following this incident, another derailment occurred in the same state involving a train from the same Norfolk Southern company. Speaking on ABC’s This Week the next morning, state Senator Sherrod Brown said the new incident made it clear that “the greed and incompetence of (American) rail companies is always more important than” safety.
