Buttigieg tours site of train derailment in East Palestine
EAST PALESTINE - U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Thursday toured the site where a Norfolk Southern train derailed and caught fire earlier this month, spilling toxic chemicals into nearby streams and soils.
Buttigieg met with U.S. Department of Transportation investigators who, according to Buttigieg’s office, were on the ground in East Palestine hours after the train derailed on Feb. 3 near the Pennsylvania border.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday released a preliminary report on the derailment that showed the crew aboard the 141-car train became aware of an overheated wheel bearing moments before the wreck and tried to stop the train.
Nearly three weeks later, the burnedout husks of several tanker cars sit off to the side of the railway that travels directly through downtown East Palestine. A strong odor of chemicals permeates the air.
Navigating large gravel pieces and mud, the transportation secretary examined the tanker cars and questioned their strength. The hulls to several were breached in the crash and the chemicals they carried spilled and caught fire.
“We had this cocktail of all this stuff that was on fire,” said Randy Keltz, manager of tank car safety programs for the Federal Railroad Administration.
Keltz said local firefighters responded and attempted to suppress the fire before Norfolk Southern and their emergency response contractors decided it was best to have the firefighters fall back.
None of the cars exploded in the derailment, Keltz said. But days after the crash, Norfolk Southern conducted a controlled burn of vinyl chloride to avoid an explosion, releasing hydrogen chloride and the toxic gas phosgene into the air.
Buttigieg in the wake of the derailment is calling on Norfolk Southern and other rail companies to expedite the implementation of DOT 117 train cars, which are designed to prevent the release of the car’s contents if something happens. Companies must have those cars in place by 2029, but the transportation officials want to see it happen sooner.
It’s unclear whether the new cars would have prevented the derailment and fire that raged for days, but Buttigieg said he believes they will help improve safety. “When you see the twisted metal there, you realize the difference between a fortified tank car and some of the tank cars that don’t have that level of fortification,” he said.
Keltz said once the NTSB releases the wreckage to Norfolk Southern, the crash site will be remediated. He could not provide a timeline for when that would happen. “You’d have to ask the railroad, that’s not our forte,” he told the secretary.
Buttigieg during his visit to this Ohio town near the Pennsylvania border sought to address criticism from some that he should have visited sooner.
In a visit to the village on Wednesday, former President Donald Trump described the federal response to the train derailment as a “betrayal.”
When questioned by reporters, Buttigieg said he was trying to strike a fine balance between being a public-facing official and giving NTSB room to investigate the incident.
Buttigieg expressed regret for not tweeting about the crash until a week and a half after it happened. “I felt strongly about this and could have expressed that sooner. Again, I was taking pains to respect the role that I have and the role I don’t have but that should not have stopped me from weighing in about how I felt in this community,” he said.
“To any national political figure who has decided to get involved with the plight of East Palestine, I have a simple message, which is I need your help,” he added. “If you’re serious about this, there is more that we can do to prevent more communities from going through this.”
In addition to stronger rail cars, Buttigieg wants federal officials to increase the maximum fine for railroads that violate safety rules.
The figure is currently $225,455, which Buttigieg previously called a “rounding error” for companies that rake in billions of dollars.
Buttigieg also wants Congress to look at how trains are classified when they transport hazardous materials through states. The Norfolk Southern train was not considered a high-hazard flammable train, meaning it could pass through Ohio without any notification to the state.
“Norfolk Southern and the other freight rail companies need to stop fighting us every time we try to do a regulation in order to hold them accountable for their safety record. What we have seen is that industry goes to Washington, and they get their way,” Buttigieg said.
USA Today Network Ohio Bureau Reporter Haley Bemiller contributed to this report.
Monroe Trombly covers the workplace and environmental issues for The Dispatch. mtrombly@dispatch.com @monroetrombly