EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that Norfolk Southern repeatedly tried to interfere with the agency's investigation into the East Palestine derailment and shape its conclusions about the flawed decision to blow open five tank cars and burn the vinyl chloride inside.
The NTSB also confirmed at Tuesday’s hearing that the February 2023 derailment was caused by a wheel bearing that video showed was on fire for more than 20 miles (32.19 kilometers) beforehand but wasn't caught in time by inaccurate trackside detectors. The board also approved more than two dozen recommendations to prevent similar disasters, including establishing federal rules for those detectors and the way railroads respond to them along with reviewing how officials decide whether to ever conduct a vent and burn again.
Dozens of freight cars derailed Feb. 3, 2023, on the outskirts of East Palestine near the Pennsylvania border, including 11 carrying hazardous materials. Some residents were evacuated that night but days later more had to leave their homes amid fears of an imminent explosion. Despite potential health effects, officials intentionally released and burned toxic vinyl chloride from five railcars three days after the crash, sending flames and smoke into the air.
At the end of the meeting, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy accused Norfolk Southern of interfering with the investigation and abusing its status as a party to the probe to help gather information.
“Norfolk Southern’s abuse of the party process was unprecedented and reprehensible,” she said.
Numerous times, Homendy said, the railroad delayed or failed to give investigators information. Twice, Homendy called the railroad at the request of investigators and threatened to issue subpoenas for information, she said.
A railroad contractor told investigators that it did not take or keep records of temperature changes on the tank cars containing vinyl chloride, she said. But the NTSB suspected otherwise.
“We found through text messages through one of their employees, who provided that information in later interviews that they did keep those records,” Homendy said. “It took about two months before the team received those texts and the emails."
The railroad also said it had only 20 minutes of voice recordings from the cab of the derailed train’s engine left weeks later, despite a demand from the chief investigator that such evidence be preserved, she said.
Some of the findings discussed Tuesday weren’t a surprise because the NTSB has released quite a bit about this investigation already, but hearing revealed the most details yet about the overheating bearing and the failure of trackside detectors to catch its soaring temperatures. The board also delved into why the decision to deliberately vent and burn the vinyl chloride was flawed.
After discussing how a trackside detector in Salem, Ohio, failed to accurately measure the temperature of the burning bearing, NTSB investigators aid that Norfolk Southern and its contractors compromised the integrity of the vent-and-burn decision by withholding accurate information from Oxy Vinyls, the company that made the vinyl chloride, including evidence that the tank cars were cooling after the crash.
“Norfolk Southern and its contractors continued to assert the necessity of a vent and burn, even though available evidence should have led them to re-evaluate their initial conclusion,” investigator Paul Stancil said.
The railroad defended the decision again Tuesday and said it was based on more than just the temperature readings. Officials also had concerns about the way the pressure-relief devices malfunctioned on the tank cars though Homendy said some of those fears seemed misplaced. Norfolk Southern added that nothing kept Oxy Vinyls from joining the discussion in the command center and sharing its opinion about the tank cars.