NTSB Chair Slams Norfolk Southern For Threats During Palestine Inquest; Vinyl Chloride Burn Unnecessary

The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board called Norfolk Southern’s conduct during the board’s investigation of the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine “unconscionable” at a meeting this week to finalize the NTSB’s findings. Jennifer Homendy, the NTSB chair, said at the close of the eight-hour session that Norfolk Southern “demonstrated complete disregard” for the rules and regulations put in place to protect the integrity of the investigation. She described the company’s behavior at various times as unprecedented, reprehensive, unethical and inappropriate.

When representatives from Norfolk Southern met with her and NTSB staff near the end of the investigation, she said, the company told them this was “an opportunity to close a chapter” and “allow the community to move on.” According to Homendy, Norfolk Southern then issued a “threat” that they would “use every avenue and opportunity to vigorously defend their decision-making” in the media and in hearings in the future.

“It is not our role to defend Norfolk Southern. We are here to protect the American people and the traveling public,” she said. Calling the agency “the gold standard” for accident investigation, Homendy said the agency is “impervious to anything but the truth.” In a statement responding to Homendy’s remarks, Norfolk Southern said their communications with the NTSB were “always motivated by a desire to ensure they had all the relevant information for their independent evaluation and by a shared commitment to advance rail safety.”

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The controversial “vent and burn” of five train cars carrying the toxic chemical vinyl chloride, which occurred three days after the derailment, was unnecessary, the investigation concluded. The vent and burn released 115,000 gallons of vinyl chloride into the environment; a new study has shown that at least 16 states were potentially affected by the plume. In the months since, some residents in Ohio and Pennsylvania who live near the derailment site have developed health symptoms and chronic conditions like asthma, persistent coughing, nosebleeds, rashes and hair loss. The decision to conduct the vent and burn rather than pursuing alternative methods of disposal was “based on incomplete and misleading information provided by Norfolk Southern,” the agency said. Investigators said Norfolk Southern withheld critical data and context about the state of the train cars carrying vinyl chloride from the governor of Ohio and first responders on the scene. That data showed the temperature of the cars was decreasing and not dramatically rising as it would have been if an explosion were imminent.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27062024/norfolk-southern-east-palestine-derailment-ntsb-investigation/