This story originally appeared on Trains.com by correspondent Bill Stephens.
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio – Norfolk Southern and its contractors should not have decided to vent and burn derailed tank cars carrying vinyl chloride three days after the Feb. 3, 2023, derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.
The five tank cars were among 38 cars that derailed near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border after the catastrophic failure of a wheel bearing on a covered hopper car. The bearing was on fire but did not trigger critical alarms at two hot-bearing detectors the train passed before reaching East Palestine, where the wayside detector alert came moments before the fiery derailment.
During a public hearing this morning, the board’s professional staff made 20 recommendations designed to prevent similar wrecks and to improve the emergency response to derailments involving hazardous materials.
The recommendations – which NTSB board members are scheduled to vote on Tuesday afternoon – cover improving detection of wheel bearing failures, providing first responders with necessary training and hazardous materials information, implementing tougher tank car standards, and tightening operational restrictions on trains carrying hazardous materials.
The staff recommendations also urge improving communication among railroads, derailment contractors, chemical manufacturers and first responders before a last-resort decision is made to vent and burn tank cars laden with flammable liquids or gases.
The decision to vent and burn in East Palestine, the board said, was hampered by poor communication, confusing and misleading information, and a disregard for evidence that showed an explosive polymerization reaction was not going on inside one of the derailed tank cars.
The recommendations include six for the Federal Railroad Administration, four for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), three each for Norfolk Southern and the Association of American Railroads (AAR), two for The Chlorine Institute, and one each for Ohio and professional firefighter organizations.
FRA should:
Research hot-bearing standards.
Establish minimum requirements for hot-bearing detectors.
Create requirements for installation and maintenance of hot-bearing detectors.
Take an oversight role of AAR tank car standards.
Provide updated and more comprehensive guidance on vent and burn, and provide this information to first responders.
The NTSB also reiterated its call for requiring inward- and outward-facing videocameras on locomotives that can record and store data for 12 hours.
PHMSA should:
Revise the definition of high-hazard flammable trains to include additional materials and fewer tank cars.
Distribute updated FRA guidance on vent and burn to first responders and firefighting standards organizations.
Work with FRA to require railroads to improve real-time communication that identifies hazardous materials and their location within a train consist.
Require that hazmat placards be able to survive fires and accidents and remain legible.
Norfolk Southern should:
Review and revise policies to ensure accurate train consist information is immediately available to first responders.
Correct an incident report to reflect accurate information regarding communication with the incident commander.
Address policies for contractors to keep detailed records and share information used to make emergency response decisions.
AAR should:
Create a database of wheel bearings.
Establish criteria to demonstrate lading compatibility with tank cars.
Designate as key trains any train transporting hazardous materials in tank cars that don’t meet or exceed DOT-117 standards.
The Chlorine Institute should:
Revise safety messages regarding the risk of vinyl chloride polymerization in a railroad accident.
Address contractor training and capabilities.
Ohio should:
Require volunteer firefighter training to meet professional firefighter training standards.
Three professional firefighting organizations should:
Identify volunteer firefighters who are not trained to professional standards.
The final NTSB report, which will include updates from the hearing, will be available online in a few weeks.
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