Gov. Shapiro says Norfolk Southern had 'poor handling' of derailment response in open letter
Garret RobertsAMBRIDGE – After meeting with local emergency management officials, Gov. Josh Shapiro has released an open letter criticizing Norfolk Southern Railway for their response to the incident.
According to the letter, Shapiro met with local politicians and Beaver County's emergency management officials in Ambridge Tuesday afternoon to discuss the Norfolk Southern Railway’s “poor handling of this incident.” Officials said Norfolk Southern personnel separated themselves from local agencies at the scene to act independently, which caused the Unified Command to experience issues throughout the emergency response.
“While I appreciate that responding to train derailments presents an array of complex challenges, failure to adhere to well-accepted standards of practice related to incident management and prioritizing an accelerated and arbitrary timeline to reopen the rail line injected unnecessary risk and created confusion in the process,” Shapiro said. “You can be assured that Pennsylvania will hold Norfolk Southern accountable for any and all impacts to our Commonwealth.”
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The train derailment occurred in the village of East Palestine, roughly a quarter-mile from the Pennsylvania state border, around 9 p.m. Feb. 3. Multiple cars on the Norfolk Southern train caught on fire following the incident, including several cars which were transporting a toxic chemical known as vinyl chloride. A controlled release was conducted on Feb. 6 to prevent a potential explosion, which forced residents within a mile of the crash to evacuate their homes.
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In the letter from Shapiro, he said officials in the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency were not notified of the initial incident for “the first few hours,” which prevented time for essential input from the state. According to the governor, communications with the crews from Norfolk Southern became a problem early in the process and several decisions from the company were not properly reported to local officials.
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Shapiro said one of these instances was when crews released the toxic vinyl chloride gas from several train cars, rather than their originally stated intention of only releasing gas from a single car. He also wrote that the number of cars that had contained hazardous materials was not communicated to first responders, which led to confusion for authorities working near the derailment.
“Norfolk Southern has repeatedly assured us of the safety of their rail cars — in fact, leading Norfolk Southern personnel described them to me as ‘the Cadillac of rail cars’ — yet despite these assertions, these were the same cars that Norfolk Southern personnel rushed to vent and burn without gathering input from state and local leaders,” Shapiro said. “Norfolk Southern's well-known opposition to modernized regulations require further scrutiny and investigation to limit the devastating effects of future accidents on peoples' lives, property, businesses and the environment.”
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According to the letter, Norfolk Southern's conduct is currently under investigation by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and state legislators are seeking this review. Federal reviews of railway procedures have also begun, which include the potential for regulating railway companies to have advanced braking equipment on trains carrying hazardous materials.