NTSB publishes results of investigation into train derailment

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio – The National Transportation Safety Board held hearings Tuesday to discuss its findings from the more than year-long investigation into the East Palestine train derailment.

They concluded that the derailment was caused by a wheel bearing failure and confirmed that a trackside detector in Salem, located 20 miles upstream of the derailment, had failed to detect the bearing fire.

The NTSB said it could not determine why the bearing failed because it was so badly damaged in the derailment.

Misti Allison, a member of the East Palestine community, said she hopes this information will help prevent future disasters.

“I’m excited to see all this information come to light and I really hope that it will produce some actionable results in the future and become a catalyst for change,” she said.

According to the NTSB, the first emergency call was made at 8:56 p.m. and emergency responders arrived on the scene around 9 p.m. The train was on fire, and according to the NTSB, the fire was likely caused by a tank car carrying a plate that was loaded with butyl acrylate. The NTSB questioned decisions made by emergency responders in the moments after their arrival, such as setting up a command post just 400 feet from the fire and not evacuating anyone within a one-mile radius until 11 p.m. According to the NTSB, this exposed emergency responders and residents to hazardous materials. Troy Lloyd explained what emergency responders did wrong.

“Although firefighters acted in good faith to protect their community, the initial emergency response did not follow guidelines and involved tank cars and unknown materials,” he said.

It took more than an hour for emergency responders to determine what materials were on the train because there is no train composition record, which increased people’s exposure to the dangerous materials, something Allison noted during the hearing.

“Essentially the unavailability of the train formation and the exact contents of the trains. This really breaks my heart for the community and especially for the first responders who are risking their lives to help us,” she said.

The NTSB said the “vent and burn” procedure, which involved setting fire to five train cars leaking vinyl chloride in the days following the derailment, was not necessary.

To address these problems, the NTSB stated that firefighters should be better trained in handling hazardous materials, a database of bearing failures and replacements should be established to identify failure risk factors, and trains should be immediately available after incidents of this type. The findings also made several other recommendations to ensure that incidents of this type do not occur again.

Jennifer Homendy, the NTSB chair, ended the meeting by saying she was “deeply troubled” by the way the NTSB was conducting the investigation. She said Norfolk Southern had violated its agreement with the NTSB and failed to give the NTSB some information it had requested for the investigation.

“The parties are not allowed to falsify their own evidence and develop their own facts outside of the NTSB’s investigation process, and that is exactly what Norfolk Southern did,” Homendy said.

The NTSB will issue a final report in the coming weeks.