EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — The National Transportation Safety Board held hearings on Tuesday to discuss its findings of the over a yearlong investigation into the East Palestine train derailment. 

What You Need To Know

  • The National Transportation Safety Board shared their findings from the investigation into the East Palestine train derailment

  • They said the cause was due to a wheel bearing failure and explained many ways that the disaster could have been handled better

  • NTSB chair, Jennifer Homendy, said she was "deeply troubled" by the way Norfolk Southern handled the investigation

They found that the derailment was caused by a wheel bearing failure and confirmed that a trackside detector in Salem, which was 20 miles before the derailment, failed to detect that the bearing was on fire.

NTSB explained that they cannot identify why the bearing failed because it was so damaged in the derailment.

Misti Allison, an East Palestine community member, explained that she hopes this information could prevent future disasters.

“I’m pleased that all this information is coming to light and then I just really hope that moving forward some actionable results come from this and there is a catalyst for change,” she said.

NTSB said the first 911 call was made at 8:56 p.m. and that emergency first responders arrived at the site around 9 p.m. The train was on fire and NTSB said that it was likely caused by a punctured tank car that was carrying butyl acrylates. NTSB questioned the decisions that were made by first responders in the moments after they arrived, such as sending up a command post only 400 feet away from the fire and not evacuating people within a one-mile radius until 11 p.m. NTSB said it exposed first responders and community members to hazardous materials. Troy Lloyd explained where the first responders went wrong.

“While the firefighters acted in good faith to protect their community. The initial emergency response did not conform to the guidelines involving tank cars and unknown materials,” he said.

It took over an hour for first responders to learn what materials were on the train due to the lack of train consist, which is the detailed contents of what’s on a train. This further exposed people to the hazardous materials, something that stuck out to Allison during the hearing.

“Essentially the unavailability of the consist and exactly what was on the trains and that truly just breaks my heart for the community and especially for the first responders that put their lives on the line to help us,” she said.

The NTSB said that the “vent and burn” which was setting fire to five train cars that leaked vinyl chloride in the days following the derailment, was not necessary. 

As for solutions to these issues, the NTSB explained that they want firefighters to receive more training handling hazardous material, a database to be set up with bearing failures and replacements to help determine failure risk factors and to make sure train consists are available immediately following events like this. There were also several other recommendations following their findings to try to make sure an event like this does not happen again.

Jennifer Homendy, the NTSB chair, ended the meeting by saying she was “deeply troubled” by the way that the NTSB handled the investigation. She said that Norfolk Southern violated their agreement with the NTSB and failed to give some information to the NTSB that they requested for the investigation. 

“Parties are not permitted to manufacture their own evidence and develop their own set of facts outside of the NTSB investigative process, which is exactly what Norfolk Southern did,” Homendy said.

The NTSB will have a final report in the coming weeks. 

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