Norfolk Southern’s Second Ohio Derailment Is Investigated

About 20 of the train’s 212 cars derailed near Springfield around 4:45 p.m. local time, officials said. No injuries were reported. 

Norfolk Southern said it is coordinating with authorities at the site and working to clear the debris. 

It is still unclear what caused the second train derailment. A Norfolk Southern official said on Sunday that the two incidents were unrelated. “It was just bad luck,” he said.

An official from the Association of American Railroads, an industry trade group, said derailments are a relatively common cause of train accidents with around a dozen reported so far this year. The trade group said that for all railroads, the derailment rate is down 31% since 2000.

Local hazmat crews were deployed after the wreck out of an abundance of caution, according to Springfield officials who spoke at a news conference at roughly 1 a.m. Sunday. 

Four of the derailed cars held nonhazardous material, officials said. Trace amounts of diesel fuel were found in two other cars and trace amounts of a polyacrylamide water solution were found in two more.  

There is no risk to the public water supply, officials said. 

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Ohio Emergency Management Agency were also at the site, according to Ohio Gov.

Mike DeWine.

Polyacrylamide is a substance used in paper production and food processing and isn’t toxic, officials said.

An Ohio EPA official said there was no spillage and that public water was safe for use. “Polyacrylamide water solution and diesel exhaust fluid are products routinely shipped by rail,” he said.

The derailment occurred as residents of East Palestine grapple with the aftereffects of last month’s Norfolk Southern derailment that spilled toxic materials.

In all, 38 cars derailed in February, including 11 tankers carrying hazardous materials that caught fire.

Five tanker cars carried 115,580 gallons of vinyl chloride, a flammable and toxic gas used to make PVC pipe. Other railcars carried hazardous materials such as isobutylene and butyl acrylate. Days after the East Palestine derailment, the railroad performed a controlled burn of vinyl chloride from the tanker cars to prevent an explosion.

Federal and state officials said that air, water and soil sampling in the Ohio-Pennsylvania border town of 4,700 didn’t detect significant levels of contaminants. But many residents have expressed concern about possible long-term health risks. 

A preliminary report last month from the National Transportation Safety Board found an overheated wheel bearing on a railcar was the likely cause of that derailment.

Legislation introduced this month seeks to subject railroads to new federal safety regulations and fines for any wrongdoings. 

Ohio Sens.

Sherrod Brown,

a Democrat, and J.D. Vance, a Republican, along with Sens.

Marco Rubio

(R., Fla.),

Josh Hawley

(R., Mo.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.) and John Fetterman (D., Pa.), are part of a bipartisan effort to prevent future train disasters.

The lawmakers said the bill would strengthen safety procedures for trains carrying hazardous materials, establish requirements for wayside defect detectors, create a permanent requirement for railroads to operate with at least two-person crews, and increase fines for wrongdoing committed by rail carriers. 

Norfolk Southern Chief Executive

Alan Shaw

has said the railroad would pay for environmental remediation and monitoring and would stay to help East Palestine recover for as long as it takes.

Write to Ginger Adams Otis at Ginger.AdamsOtis@wsj.com and Costas Paris at costas.paris@wsj.com