Since Ohio train derailment, accidents have gone up

Legislation aimed at improving safety has stalled

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — After a freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed a year ago in East Palestine, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents and upending life in the town for months, the rail industry pledged to work to become safer, and members of Congress vowed to pass legislation to prevent similar disasters.

No bill was passed. And accidents went up.

Derailments rose at the top five freight railroads in 2023, according to regulatory reports for the first 10 months of the year, the most recent period for which data exist for all five companies.

And there was a steep increase in the mechanical problem — an overheated wheel bearing — that regulators think caused the derailment of the 1.75-mile-long train in East Palestine.

Norfolk Southern, the operator of the train and the owner of the track that runs through the town, was the only railroad among the five to report a decline in accidents in the period.

In response to the accident, members of Congress in March introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at making railroads safer. But crucial parts of the legislation — including a requirement that railroads use more detectors to identify overheated wheel bearings — have faced resistance from rail lobbyists, who contend that they would inhibit the ability of railroads to introduce practices and technologies to reduce accidents. The bill has yet to be put up for a full vote in the Senate.

“These figures show the railroad industry’s safety standards are getting worse,” said Senator J.D. Vance, an Ohio Republican who is a co-sponsor of the bill. “We can reverse the trend by passing the Railway Safety Act immediately.”

Rail companies say that they have taken steps since the disaster to reduce accidents, including using new technology and improving safety training, and that those changes have begun to show results.

In the accident, on Feb. 3 last year, 38 rail cars derailed; 11 of them contained hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride, used to make plastics. Three days after the crash, authorities, fearing that the five tank cars containing vinyl chloride might explode, released and burned the cars’ contents. The fires created huge smoke plumes over East Palestine, which is just over the border from Pennsylvania.

A creek that still shows signs of pollution runs from the crash site through the center of East Palestine, where the mayor, Trent Conaway, has offices in a nondescript municipal building that he calls the village hall. In an interview this month, he said the town was “90 to 95 percent back to normal.”

But like many other residents, he said he wanted to be sure that changes were made to hold railway companies accountable.

“I wish the railroad safety act would have been passed,” Conaway said. “It sort of upsets me. It’s almost like we were forgotten a little bit.”