A major train derailment accident occurred on February 3 in Ohio, USA.norfolk southA freight train of the (Norfolk Southern) railroad company left Madison, Illinois (Madison, Illinois) to Conway, Pennsylvania (Conway, Pennsylvania) at around 9 p.m. local time, with about 50 cars in East Palestine, Ohio (East Palestine) derailed and caught fire. The scene was full of flames and smoke. Because the train was a freight train and did not carry passengers, only the crew members of the train suffered minor abrasions.
Because the accident train carried a huge amount of “vinyl chloride” gas, which is not only flammable, inhaled, but also carcinogenic. Therefore, the authorities issued a multi-day evacuation order, and the local residents were not allowed to return home until February 8. Afterwards, they still reported feeling unwell . The major train derailment incident in Ohio has once again set off a wave of American society’s review of railway safety-the US government passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill in November 2021, which allocated 66 billion to improve railway construction. What is the effect now?
In addition, in the past six years, the major freight railroads in the United States have saved a lot of manpower and laid off as many as one-third of the railroad workers. As a result, inspectors and maintenance personnel can only spend less time and deal with a greater workload. , Can this derailment accident be interpreted as the consequences of neglecting maintenance safety?
▌Dangerous chemical gas leakage
The accident train consisted of 3locomotiveIt is composed of 150 truck compartments, 20 of which carry dangerous substances. According to Norfolk Southern Company, more than 20 compartments carry dangerous goods such as so-called “flammable, combustible or environmentally hazardous materials”, of which 14 carry “vinyl chloride“(vinyl chloride) cars were also derailed and exposed to the sea of fire, and there may be more than one car among them, and the vinyl chloride in the cars was slowly released through the valve to relieve pressure.
According to the National Cancer Institute, vinyl chloride is a colorless industrially produced gas that is flammable and is mainly used in the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes and other products. Inhalation increases the risk of liver cancer and other cancers. It is also the cause of cigarette smoking. By-products of combustion.
East Palestine Fire Chief Keith A. Drabick and others fought the fire overnight after the accident, but ordered an evacuation after confirming that one of the cars contained the flammable chemical vinyl chloride, which could endanger on-site workers on site.
Drabick said there were other chemicals in the car, and all emergency responders will keep a distance from the accident car until the testing unit confirms it is safe. East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway also said at a press conference that “it’s not safe for anyone to put out the fire there,” hampering relief efforts and keeping the blaze burning for days.
Since the incident occurred on the border between Ohio and Pennsylvania, government authorities in the two states evacuated residents within 1 to 2 miles (approximately 1.6 to 3.2 kilometers) of the surrounding area, and about half of the 4,800 residents had to evacuate their homes. Sheltered to a local high school and community center. The Norfolk Southern Company also opened an emergency rescue center in the local area to assist in contacting the affected residents and provide the Red Cross and other rescue units with the required funds.
according toReutersAccording to reports, five of the carriages carrying vinyl chloride were in an extremely unstable state and might cause an explosion, causing fragments to scatter and injure people and toxic smoke to pour out. controlled discharge of hazardous chemical gases.
The Norfolk Southern Company, in cooperation with Ohio State officials, drew up a plan to manually discharge the chemical substances. On the afternoon of February 6, the vinyl chloride gas discharge was completed and a small detonation was carried out. The burning compartment was contained. , Disaster relief work can continue, while relevant units closely monitor the surrounding air and water quality data. The evacuation order for surrounding residents was also lifted on February 8, and residents returned home one after another with anxiety.
However, on February 13, the Ohio Department of Natural Resourcespointed outthe accident caused the leakage of chemical substances, resulting in the death of more than 3,500 fish in a river about 12 kilometers south of East Palestine. Local residents also expressed that they would not use the nearby water sources until they were guaranteed safety; 2 People who returned home after March 8 still reported that the local area had a strange smell, which made them feel headaches, nausea and other discomforts.
▌Accident investigation
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has set up an investigation progress report for the accident.help page。
Spokesman Michael Graham said that shortly before the derailment, crew members were alerted that there was a failure in the wheel axle, which triggered an emergency brake (note: the train’s emergency brake), causing the carriage to push and lead to Cheating. Investigators also identified the derailment point and found surveillance footage from the car at the time of the incident, showing that there was indeed some kind of “mechanical problem.”
NTSB will further request Norfolk Southern Company to provide relevant records, including track inspection records, locomotive and rail car inspection and maintenance records, train crew resumes, etc., and is investigating the handling process of crew members, including a driver, Commander and Trainee Conductor.
It will take at least 18 to 24 months for the complete investigation results, and the preliminary investigation report will be updated on the official website and Twitter within 4 to 6 weeks.
▌What is railway safety?
The major train derailment incident in Ohio has once again set off a wave of review of railway safety in American society.
Some public opinion first questioned, what is the effect of the 66 billion allocated to improve railway construction in the US$1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed by US President Biden in November 2021?
In this regard, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) stated that the infrastructure budget is mainly aimed at improving passenger railways, while freight transportation has always been the main business of railway companies, and continues to invest in maintenance and other work.
FRA’sdataAccording to statistics, about 1,000 train derailments occur on average in the United States every year, and not all accidents lead to the release of toxic chemicals. This case can be said to be a special case. With 99.9 percent of dangerous goods transported safely to their destinations, rail remains arguably the safest form of land freight transportation in the United States.
Professor David Clarke, who previously led the Transportation Research Center at the University of Tennessee, said:
However, Greg Regan, chairman of the American Federation of Labor and Confederation of Industrial Unions (AFL-CIO) Transportation and Trade Alliance, said that fears that the chances of catastrophic derailment are increasing significantly because major freight rail companies have been in the past six years. Among them, about a third of the railroad workforce has been laid off.
Company policy has shifted to running trains with fewer shifts but longer train lengths to save on drivers, porters, maintenance crews, etc. – each inspector had about 2 minutes to check each car, now only about 30 to 45 seconds to check. The scope of jurisdiction of track maintenance personnel and maintenance personnel responsible for signaling equipment has also expanded, which makes usual maintenance and prevention more difficult.
Reagan dissatisfied pointed out:
“They (railroads) are really just trying to squeeze more productivity out of these workers.”
The phenomenon raised by Reagan also coincides with the United States Railroad strike in October 2022, which calls for improving the schedule system and manpower structure.
After the derailment accident in Ohio, the American media also kicked the news that Norfolk Southern used to spend a lot of money lobbying congressmen and government officials to limit the applicable objects of dangerous goods safety regulations during the Trump administration, so that the company would not have to spend more costs. Install a safer electronic braking system (note: deceleration and braking devices for trains).
Prior to this, the railway freight company’s brake system still used the pneumatic brake system of the 1868 specification. Norfolk Southern Company’s lobbying succeeded in limiting the types of freight that need to be loaded with the new brake system to tank trucks, while allowing other types of chemical hazards to continue to be carried using the old specification system; it is worth mentioning that Norfolk While Falk Southern spent billions of dollars hiring power brokers to lobby, it fired thousands of workers.
The railway union and track experts believe that the railway company pursued profits and streamlined manpower, so that later trains adopted a large number of single crew members and shortened the time for shunting and maintenance. This derailment accident is the result of the railway company only wanting to make money and destroying the safety culture of the organization. .
As of February 14, Norfolk Railways was facing at least four class-action lawsuits from East Palestine residents and business owners alleging that it failed to properly maintain and inspect its tracks and rolling stock, provide proper employee training, and fail to Can transparently inform the public of the company’s operating conditions, which can lead to derailment accidents.
A few days after the accident, the derailed carriages were still scattered around the tracks waiting to be restored. However, the safety problems of the fragmented American railways are obviously more messy and difficult to deal with. For the US government, the road to railway safety reform is still long.
