EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — The National Transportation Safety Board on Friday is hosting the second half of a two-day hearing into the freight train derailment and chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio. The February derailment morphed from a serious derailment into a national political story after authorities decided to vent and burn the hazardous vinyl chloride the train was carrying. The fire sent a plume of black smoke above the small community and left residents fearing for their health.
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End of carouselThe railcar that suffered an overheated bearing, causing the derailment in East Palestine, had not recently been inspected, a union official said. Jason Cox, a representative of the Brotherhood Railway Carmen, said the risk posed by the bearing might have been detected had the car been given a close look.
The East Palestine fire chief told investigators probing a Norfolk Southern derailment that the railroad gave him 13 minutes to decide whether to vent and burn carloads of hazardous vinyl chloride — a timeline he said left him feeling “blindsided.” The decision would change a serious derailment in early February into a national event that became the backdrop for weeks of culture war battles.
The on-scene hearing is the first since the NTSB sent representatives to Alaska as part of a plane crash investigation six years ago and is a rare chance for the public to observe the NTSB’s investigators at work.
Here’s what the derailed train was carrying — and what was burned.
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Skip to end of carousel
End of carouselThe railcar that suffered an overheated bearing, causing the derailment in East Palestine, had not recently been inspected, a union official said. Jason Cox, a representative of the Brotherhood Railway Carmen, said the risk posed by the bearing might have been detected had the car been given a close look.
The East Palestine fire chief told investigators probing a Norfolk Southern derailment that the railroad gave him 13 minutes to decide whether to vent and burn carloads of hazardous vinyl chloride — a timeline he said left him feeling “blindsided.” The decision would change a serious derailment in early February into a national event that became the backdrop for weeks of culture war battles.
The on-scene hearing is the first since the NTSB sent representatives to Alaska as part of a plane crash investigation six years ago and is a rare chance for the public to observe the NTSB’s investigators at work.
Here’s what the derailed train was carrying — and what was burned.
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