SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board began their investigation into the second train derailment in Ohio in nearly a month. They are in Clark County surveying the damage and trying to determine what may have caused the train cars to go off track.
What You Need To Know
- This is Norfolk Southern's second train derailment in Ohio in about a month
- Members of the National Transportation Board arrived on scene on Monday afternoon to survey the scene
- Norfolk Southern released a six-point safety plan after the second derailment occurred on Saturday
- Ohio Route 41 remains closed, but the train tracks have reopened to trains at a reduced speed
About 20 cars of a Norfolk Southern cargo train derailed near Springfield Saturday evening. Now that all the railcars that derailed are cleaned up, officials had a chance to take a look at the damage more closely.
It was reiterated several times there were no hazardous materials in any of the cars that derailed and that there is no health or safety concerns for the local community.
“There are no hazardous materials that have contacted the soil, been exposed to the air or contacted any of the water sources or water recharge areas nearby where the incident occurred," said Charles Patterson, the health commissioner for the Clark County Combined Health District.
Norfolk Southern officials did confirm though that several cars on the train that did not derail were holding some type of hazardous material.
Members of the National Transportation Safety Board did come out to survey the scene but did not address the media, so no questions were answered as to what may have caused it. With this being the second Norfolk Southern derailment in Ohio in just about a month, the train company said they understand there is a level of distrust between them and the public.
“We know that some people feel that way," said Connor Spielmaker, the senior communications manager for Norfolk Southern. "And we’ve been very clear that we’re going to listen to these investigators. We’re going to work with these investigators, identify things we can do. We also put out information this morning about some immediate action we’re taking. We have a six-point safety plan that went out this morning.”
One of those pieces of that plan is to enhance the hot bearing detector network- which detects overheating of cars. Right now, those lie an average of 14 miles apart. They plan to add about 200 more detectors to its network.
Ohio Route 41 will remain closed for the foreseeable future and work will continue here even after the road reopens.