NTSB's Homendy: Train derailment was preventable

The Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern Railway train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, was "100% preventable," National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said yesterday after releasing the board’s preliminary report of its investigation.

Homendy discussed the report during a press conference held yesterday shortly after the report’s release.

"We call these things accidents, but there is no accident," she said. "Every single event that we investigate is preventable," she said.

The NTSB's preliminary report on the derailment can be read here.

Homendy also announced that the NTSB would hold a rare, investigative field hearing this spring in East Palestine.

"We don't have investigative hearings often," she said. "But we will question invited witnesses."

The NTSB's goals for the hearing are to inform the public, collect factual information from witnesses, discuss possible solutions, and build consensus for change, she added.

The investigation will focus in part on a wheelset bearing that overheated and wayside detectors that alerted the train crew to the problem prior to the derailment. In response to the report, NS officials said that its wayside detectors trigger an alarm at a temperature among the lowest in the rail industry. The railroad has inspected all wayside detectors in the area of the incident and found they were operating as designed, company officials said in a press release.

NS also is inspecting all of the nearly 1,000 wayside heat detectors on its system on top of the regular inspection of the detectors every 30 days.

NS and the rail industry need"“to learn as much as we can" from the derailment and its aftermath, company officials said.

"Norfolk Southern will develop practices and invest in technologies that could help prevent an incident like this in the future. We will also work with the owners of the rail cars on the integrity and safety of the equipment we use," they added.

Meanwhile, in other developments:

• U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) wrote to the CEOs of all Class Is requesting detailed information and documents about safety practices involved in rail transportation of hazardous materials. Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, wants the information submitted to the committee by March 17. "Every railroad must reexamine its hazardous materials safety practices to better protect its employees, the environment and American families, and reaffirm safety as a top priority," Cantwell wrote.
• NS today announced an initial $300,000 donation, without condition, to the East Palestine City School District to support the district's academics, athletics, extracurricular activities and its long-term contingency planning regarding the impacts of the derailment. The donation comes after NS President and CEO Alan Shaw visited East Palestine, where he heard concerns from residents firsthand. Each of the district's three schools — East Palestine Elementary, East Palestine Middle, and East Palestine High schools — will receive $100,000.