Ohio residents had a deja-vu moment on Saturday evening when they heard about a Norfolk Southern cargo train derailing. The accident occurred near Springfield, Ohio on March 4, just over a month after the February 3 derailment in East Palestine which caused an environmental disaster in the area.
The moment of the derailment was caught on camera by a driver who was waiting at an intersection. Shawn Heaton who uploaded the video on YouTube told the Springfield News-Sun that he was playing on his phone when a loud bang on the tracks prompted him to start recording: “When I heard the bang, there was all kinds of debris and metal shoot out from under the cars and that’s when I started recording and you could see them start jumping off the tracks”.
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The train derailed at around 5 pm on Saturday, 46 miles (74 km) west of the state capital of Columbus as it was traveling from Bellevue, Ohio to Birmingham, Ala. The wreckage was cleared up on Sunday while the cause of the derailment is still under investigation. A Norfolk Southern spokesperson revealed to The Columbus Dispatch that 28 of the 212 cars derailed, with other sources mentioning 20 cars.
The company spokesperson said that there were no reported injuries and the train didn’t carry any hazardous materials. Those claims were confirmed in the press conference by Ohio EPA Director Anne Vogel, who assured the concerned citizens there was “no release of any chemicals, no release of any materials to the soil, to the air, to the water”.
More details about the cargo were shared by Norfolk Southern Manager of General Operations Kraig Barner who mentioned that the train was carrying “plastic products, steel products, automobiles, and other items” while a couple of cars that were not involved in the incident were carrying “liquid propane and ethanol”.
The situation was a lot more serious with the East Palestine accident on February 3, where at least five hazardous chemicals were released raising concerns about long-term health impacts on the local population. More than 50 cars from the 150-car cargo train of the same company were derailed, followed by a huge fire. There were no reported injuries but the dangerous chemicals that could be exposed to the fire led to an evacuation notice for nearby residents.
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