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An overheated railcar component was the likely cause of a
Norfolk Southern Corp.
train derailment earlier this month, federal transportation officials said Thursday, an incident that created an environmental mess in a small Ohio town that the railroad and state and federal officials are still trying to clean up.
Before the train carrying several cars of hazardous chemicals derailed Feb. 3, the crew heard a warning telling them they needed to immediately slow and stop the train to conduct an inspection, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board. It was during the deceleration that the wheel bearing failed, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said during a press briefing.
By the time the roughly 150-car train stopped in East Palestine, the crew saw fire and smoke and notified authorities of a possible derailment, the NTSB report said. Before the derailment, the train was traveling eastbound at 47 miles per hour, less than the maximum authorized speed of 50 mph, toward Conway, Penn.
Thirty-eight railcars derailed and a fire damaged an additional 12 cars, according to the NTSB. Of the railcars that were derailed, 11 were carrying hazardous materials, such as vinyl chloride, a flammable and toxic gas. Three days after the accident, the railroad burned vinyl chloride from five tanker cars to prevent a catastrophic explosion.
The NTSB said it would hold an investigative field hearing this spring in connection with the accident. The agency said the findings in its report are subject to change pending additional information gathered in its continuing investigation.
“We know what derailed the train,” Ms. Homendy said at a press briefing. “We have a lot of questions.”
A representative for Norfolk Southern said the railroad would issue a statement in conjunction with the NTSB briefing. Norfolk Southern Chief Executive
Alan Shaw
has said that the railroad will pay for environmental remediation and monitoring and will stay to help East Palestine recover and thrive for as long as it takes.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited the clean-up site in East Palestine for the first time Thursday. Officials from Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as federal officials from agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services, have been in the town in the days following the derailment.
Mr. Buttigieg toured the wreckage of burned tanker cars that have yet to be cleared from the site and met with the village’s mayor, Trent Conaway, as well as residents and staff from federal agencies participating in the clean-up.
He also reiterated calls for tougher regulations on the rail industry, including increasing fines for safety violations and speeding up a timeline for requiring stronger tanker cars. He praised residents for their decency and resiliency following the accident and the national attention that has followed.
“I felt strong about this and could have expressed that sooner,” Mr. Buttigieg said. “I think the most important thing is making sure that the residents have what they need.”
The derailment has upended the town of about 5,000 residents near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. The subsequent cleanup and ongoing health concerns have frustrated residents and local officials, and have spurred questions about rail safety and how federal overseers regulate the industry.
The Association of American Railroads, a railroad industry trade group, said in a statement Thursday that railroads will use this initial report to shape “a thoughtful, fact-driven approach to prevent another similar accident before it can occur elsewhere.”
Before the derailment, the train passed three monitors along the tracks that are designed to detect overheating equipment. Norfolk Southern has a protocol for crews to follow if the detector equipment records a temperature that exceeds a certain threshold, the NTSB said.
Two defect detectors, located 30 miles and 20 miles away from the one that sounded the alarm, didn’t record temperatures above Norfolk Southern’s established alarm thresholds. But when the train reached the third monitor, a bearing on the 23rd railcar measured at 253 degrees Fahrenheit above the ambient temperature, well above critical levels, the NTSB said.
“Had there been a detector earlier, the derailment may not have occurred,” said Ms. Homendy, adding that more investigations need to be done. Railroads currently have discretion to determine how much space there is between detectors.
Surveillance video from a local residence showed a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat-failure moments before the derailment, the NTSB report added. Wheel bearings can break or disintegrate upon intense heat.
The NTSB is collecting information on what caused overheating of the wheel bearing and the axle, Ms. Homendy said.
The NTSB said its further investigation will focus on wheelset and bearing, tank-car design and derailment damage. The agency is also reviewing the accident response that included the venting and burning of vinyl chloride, railcar design and maintenance procedures, and Norfolk Southern’s use of wayside detectors and its railcar inspection practices.
—Kris Maher and Eric Bazail-Eimil contributed to this article.
Write to Esther Fung at esther.fung@wsj.com
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