Saturday, February 3, marks one year since thousands of people living in East Palestine were awakened by knocks on their doors late in the night and told to evacuate their homes after a freight train containing hazardous chemicals derailed in the village.

The derailment caused an immediate burst of flames as the railcars and followed days later with a massive plume of smoke during what officials referred to as 'controlled burn,' an effort to avoid a toxic explosion of the derailed tank cars. 

We look at what happened, look at what, if anything, has changed in the rail legislation, and speak with experts about why changing legislation against the rail industry is, historically, a challenging proposition. 

We also traveled to Washington, DC, to speak with the National Transportation Safety Board Chair, Jennifer Homendy, about what she believes needs to be done to stop another East Palestine-type disaster from happening.

The complete broadcast of '101 West' and the full interviews with NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy and US DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg can be found at the bottom of the story.

HEADING TOWARD EAST PALESTINE

One year ago today, a Norfolk Southern train - 32N - left Madison, Illinois, heading to Conway, Pennsylvania, a small community about 20 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. The train had broken down on its way to Toledo, where it restaffed and had other stops to make before continuing onto Cleveland. From there, the train turned southward and started its fateful trek toward the Valley.

The train was more than 1.75 miles long, consisting of 149 rail cars and three engines. 32N weighed 18,000 tons and hauled 20 hazardous material tank cars.

The train was reportedly called '32 Nasty' by rail workers for alleged concerns over its length and weight.

FEBRUARY 3 - MOMENTS BEFORE DERAILMENT

It was 7:47 p.m. en route through the village of Sebring, as heat detectors indicated wheel bearing temperatures began to rise and were rapidly rising when the train passed through Salem at 8:11 p.m.  Later-obtained video footage shows fire could be seen under the train at this time.

By 8:53 p.m., the train entered the village of East Palestine, and the crew attempted to stop it, but it was too late. 38 train cars had derailed, including 11 tank cars carrying hazardous materials.

The derailment resulted in multiple derailed train cars on fire and leaking hazardous chemicals, followed by the decision on February 6 to do what was called a 'vent and burn' of known carcinogenic chemicals into the air.

One year later, Are we safer today?

As the derailment uprooted the small town and caused an economic upheaval for homeowners and businesses, toxins seeped into the environment throughout the village, resulting in remediation and restoration efforts that would be underway for over a year to come.  

The local disaster gained national media attention, leading citizens, village leaders, government officials, and rail experts to question rail safety standards in the US further and wonder what the likelihood that a derailment like this could happen again anywhere else. 

The 21 News Watchdog team looked into the concern and found that there has not been any new rail safety regulation mandated since the East Palestine derailment, and any changes to improve safety are either stalled on Capitol Hill or put into effect voluntarily for the private rail companies to decide whether or not to implement.  

Trains transport almost everything, including hazardous chemicals, on about 140,000 miles of Class I tracks across the United States, and more importantly, nearly half of the U.S. population lives within two miles of a major rail line, per the Federal Railroad Administration. 

'Class I' trains travel further distances with fewer stops, a crucial means of transportation run by private companies with a revenue of MORE THAN $24 BILLION a year.

HOW COMMON ARE DERAILMENTS OF THIS NATURE? 

An average of 857 major trains derail a year nationwide, and while most derailments are not deadly, depending on timing, location, and what's inside the train, history has repeatedly shown the impact could be immense, given that Class I rail trains are required by law to transport hazardous materials. Class I rails go through large cities and small villages throughout the US, just like here in the Valley.

While no one was killed during the derailment in East Palestine, derailments dating back to the 1970s have killed hundreds and injured thousands. 

"Right now, we're in a period of pretty flat safety performance, roughly speaking, beginning in about 2010," Retired Executive of the Federal Railroad Administration, Grady Cothen, said. 

Since the February 2023 East Palestine derailment, federal rail safety legislation has been proposed but not passed. However, of the seven major rail companies in the US, some have made some changes. 

BASED ON THE CHANGES, ARE WE SAFER TODAY? 

Companies, including Norfolk Southern, said they've added more frequent, updated hot box detectors. These devices are used to assess railcar components and their temperatures, including axles, brakes, and bearings. A failed wheel bearing is the preliminary cause of the East Palestine derailment.

Rail company CSX said it's working to install more hot box detectors that are about 14-and-a-half miles apart.

This comes as Ohio passed a bill in March requiring detectors to be 10 to 15 miles apart, but the measure has stalled after a rail industry lobbyist group filed a lawsuit before it took effect.

"We haven't seen the specific evidence of that yet. We know from anecdotal evidence that there are still pockets of real problems out there," Cothen said, "One of the things that I think it's important to recognize is that it takes time to effect change."

Cothen said "the number of undertakings" that have been made by the railroads "could contribute to an improvement in the situation."

"There are many statements been made on the chief executive level indicating refocus on safety and service," he added. 

21 News contacted the seven major rail companies about any changes they made in the past year.

Would ANY OF THE UPDATES have prevented the East Palestine disaster?

There were three detectors within 30 miles, so what was the threshold for railroads to take action?

Train 32N's wheel bearing temperature increased during the first two detections but was not enough to trigger an alarm and stop the train under Norfolk Southern's standards.

The detectors measured:

  • 38 degrees...
  • Ten miles later, it was 103 degrees, and no alert.
  • It was 20 miles later that there was an alert. 

By then, the temperature had reached 253 degrees, but it was too late.

Surveillance video showed flames underneath the rail car minutes before the derailment, miles before entering the village.

That means that when the temperature had increased by 171 percent, no action was required.

Norfolk Southern's standards do not warrant a stop and inspection unless the temperature reaches at least 170 degrees, no matter how fast the temperatures are rising.

Like Norfolk Southern, CSX said crews stop the train when a hot box detector reads 170 degrees or higher. CSX said it added a new threshold as of November, where any temperature reading above 135 degrees triggers an alert to dispatchers but does not warrant a stop unless it's deemed necessary.

Since the derailment, Norfolk Southern has also expanded a regional initiative to train first responders, with plans to place a facility in East Palestine.

WHAT CHANGES ARE BEING LOOKED AT? 

Grady Cothen and Steven Ditmeyer are retired executives of the Federal Railroad Administration and have had extensive careers in rail spanning decades, including the research and development of rail safety standards.

They've worked on both sides of regulation.

Cothen said there has been a notable increase in hiring rail workers after added stress was put on employees during the COVID-19 Pandemic, but said more needs to be done.

"They are, particularly in the operating perhaps. That would be conductors, locomotive engineers, ground employees who work in the yards, those kinds of folks... That hiring has been notable," Cothen said, "We have not seen an effort to bring in more mechanical employees. Fixing cars doesn't appear to be a very profitable line of work for the railroads."

U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance introduced the Railway Safety Act of 2023 in March, weeks after the derailment. While that bill would comparatively small increase in rail safety violation fines and expand training, it leaves most of the regulation up to the Secretary of Transportation to write at a later date, and the bill is stalled due to gridlock on Capitol Hill.

Since the February 23 derailment, the seven major rail companies agreed to join a system in March of 2023, that allows railroads and their employees to report close calls during operations anonymously.

One year later, none have joined the nationwide effort.`

Earlier this week, Norfolk Southern committed again to join the system in late January of 2024, which would enable the partnership in the future, but only for a portion of rail workers in some states, including Georgia, Indiana and Virginia. A memorandum of understanding with Norfolk Southern and the Federal Railroad Administration is expected within weeks. 

WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO ENACT MAJOR CHANGE? 

Congress has the power to implement or update rail safety laws, while the FRA has the power to enforce them.

Why don't they? Well... It's complicated.

The FRA and other agencies can write rail safety regulations, but to quote 'SchoolHouse Rock,' "It's a long, long journey to the Capital City."

The process can be slow, with multiple steps, including informing the public, a public comment period, and evaluations of environmental or economic concerns.

The other government agency that looks at rail safety, the National Transportation Safety Board, is limited to recommendations only. In other words, they can recommend changes to Congress and the FRA, but the NTSB has no power to make its own rules.

That power lies with Congress.

"FRA has authority under the legislation that created the agency and there have been various safety laws written over time, and generally speaking, FRA has said 'We cannot initiate new regulations without some authority from Congress,'" Ditmeyer said.

"There also seems to be attempts to keep FRA size small. They don't want to get FRA into dispatching trains or into control of car fleets and so on… There's just sort of an ingrained thing in Congress," Ditmeyer added.

The last major rail safety bill to pass was in 2008 after a series of deadly train accidents between 2002 and 2007. And it was the first to pass since 1994.

Another effort to regulate hazardous waste on railways died in committee in 2015.

ARE LOBBYING EFFORTS PREVENTING RAIL SAFETY CHANGES? 

Senators and Representatives often receive donations from multi-billion dollar rail companies for their campaigns. Take that 2008 law for example, following the money shows that the bill did pass, but not before the rail industry tried to influence it. When the bill was first proposed, lobbyists increased spending by more than 18 percent that year alone.

In the six years following, nearly $ 263 million was spent on preventing changes. Also, many of the key provisions in this bill would not go into effect for years to come.

"Any new regulation gets fought by the railroads, and they are a big lobby," Ditmeyer said, "They have big lobbying funds because they are so profitable."

Cothen said he's also experienced challenges firsthand while researching rail safety regulations during his long career. 

"It's always difficult to get things regulated. As a lifelong regulator, I can affirm that to you. It's even more so today probably with the influence of money in politics," Cothen said, "They're very few lobbyists who spend much time on rail safety from the point of view of the public interest."

OVER-REGULATION IS ANOTHER ISSUE 

Cothen said that a deeply regulated rail industry is not the answer either.

It's important to note that the rail industry has been deregulated since 1980, allowing rail companies to set their prices, make a better profit, and largely set their safety standards. Data shows the number of train derailments decreased from nearly 7,000 in 1980. The experts point out a reason for this is that higher profit means the companies can afford to invest more in safety. 

While deregulation leads to higher profits, the cost of long-term investment in safety implementations, such as new technology, is another reason for resistance in recent decades. 

"We haven't seen the continued improvements... the implementation of technology, which the railroads tout proudly and justifiably, we haven't seen the effects of that," Cothen said, "The railroads are such an important part of the national transportation system. They carry bulk commodities that nobody else carries. They do a terrific job every day normally handling hazardous materials shipments that we don't want on the highway, and they hold down costs for everybody concerned not only from the retail standpoint but also delivering feedstocks, fertilizers, grain, and everything we need for our everyday lives and our industry, so they must be able to they are permitted to do it well."

Safety improvements cost money, but major derailments also cost millions of dollars.

Or in the case of East Palestine, the price tag is currently more than $1 billion.

"That's real money for even a highly profitable railroad," Cothen said. 

So, might a long-term investment be needed to avoid costly derailments and protect the public from another accident? 

"There's a cost to implement these, but it's going to improve your profitability even further," Ditmeyer said, "And it's going to make your customers happy."

Ditmeyer said there are automated technologies that exist that could make emergencies - like walking to track down a hot wheel bearing across a miles-long train - far more efficient, but that rail companies are not using this technology enough.

"You can track trains in real-time," he said, "You can forecast when arrival times better because you have the real-time information on where they are and how fast they're going and so on, but they've never integrated these systems."

Cothen has researched another unregulated safety component: how trains are organized.

Factors like weight, length, and terrain can impact a train. Cothen believes Congress should mandate rail companies to pay more attention to train makeup.

"A number of the other derailments that have occurred out there over the last several years are caused by train makeup, " he said, "and that needs to be addressed, even if it hasn't been the cause of a massive release of hazardous materials."

While only 13 percent of cars on the East Palestine train carried hazardous materials, they were mostly clustered together, maximizing the impact when they derailed. 

Earlier this year, the FRA called for railroads to reevaluate their placement of railcars, especially regarding the placement of hazardous chemical cars.

"They know how to do it right. It takes more time and more people to build the train correctly, then just throw it together and get the heck out of town, so commitment is required," Cothen said, "My thesis has been the federal railroad administration needs to sit on them and make sure that they're doing what they know they should be doing, and I think they would in most cases be very little dispute about what they should be doing. The railroads know better."

Both Cothen and Ditmeyer said there could and should be stronger federal rail safety regulations, better enforcement, and a push for compliance.

Currently, the maximum fines for violations are just over $232,000.

In 2022, Norfolk Southern was fined 74 times, totaling more than half a million dollars. In that same year, the company had profits of $8.65 billion. 

election 2024 - more hurdles for any new regulation

Another factor likely to bring more hurdles for any real change is that 2024 is a presidential election year, meaning a new administration could undo any progress made in rail regulations.

"What you'd like to do is, you'd like to issue a regulation that's effective, enforceable, administrable, and tolerable by the people who have to carry it out," Cothen said. 

If rail safety concerns were easy issues, they'd be taken care of yesterday, and what makes it even more challenging is if a new administration comes along, he added. 

"We lose something…when we have an administration as we did in the prior administration that is anti-regulatory," Cothen said. "There are a lot of impediments that are put in the way of regulation because, you know, you're going to get sued if you've issued a regulation that the industry doesn't like." Cothen added.

THE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD 

While the National Transportation Safety Board can only make recommendations regarding safety, they are the boots-on-the-ground investigators who determine the cause of major accidents and have voiced rail safety concerns for years.

The 21 News Watchdog Team met with NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy inside the Washington D.C. headquarters to discuss what changes should be made to avoid another toxic derailment like in East Palestine. 

"Our experience at the NTSB tells us that these events could happen again will happen again," Homendy said. "We should take immediate action. There are measures that we could take today to improve safety, a lot more than it has been done so far," Homendy added.

Homendy has been an outspoken voice since the East Palestine derailment on topics like hot box detectors and train makeup to a lack of workforce and integrating new technology; she said these are all issues that must be addressed.

Concerning rail safety, Homendy said it is generally safe and a much better option than transporting hazardous waste via roadways,

"With that said, the NTSB has issued many recommendations to improve rail safety to prevent this type of tragedy that occurred in East Palestine from occurring in the first place. If only our recommendations were implemented," Homendy said.

The Chairwoman doubled down when 21 News reporter Madison Tromler asked Homendy if she remained confident that the East Palestine derailment was preventable, something Homendy had previously voiced during an NTSB investigative hearing. 

"100 percent preventable. This was a preventable tragedy," she said.

"We have 190 rail safety recommendations on the books today that no one has taken action on. We have 380 others that were closed because people took unacceptable actions. Those, over 500 recommendations...We don't need to wait. We shouldn't wait for the next tragedy. We should take action now," Homendy added.

Yet with almost 200 different calls for change on the books, Homendy acknowledges the lack of progress on those measures and said there should be no excuses in the face of updating safety regulations, especially after history has shown for decades change could prevent tragedies. 

"It's not just frustrating to me. It's frustrating to the investigators on the ground because when we show up on the scene after a tragedy, they know this was preventable, and that we've issued a recommendation previously that would have prevented that. When there's a loss of life, that's terrible. That's absolutely terrible and inexcusable that action wasn't taken," she said.

Homendy said there is a long list of issues within the rail industry that needs to be addressed to improve safety, including worker staffing levels, weight and length of trains, hazardous train cars, local first responder preparedness, and equipment, among other operational concerns.

Homendy said there are a lot of existing technologies that can improve safety and work in tandem with the workforce for further safety protection.

"I like to remind folks that technology is there to supplement humans in the workforce," she said. "It's not there to supplant the workforce."

Tromler asked Homendy if she believes lobbying plays a role in the lack of federal regulation.

"There's a lot of focus on the cost [of regulation] over the benefits. NTSB's job, which I love, is to tell you the truth, what would prevent this from reoccurring," she said.

"It's not what's fiscally available and digestible. It's not what might get you there. It always will get you to the end result of preventing tragedy, but a lot of times in rulemaking, costs become part of the factor and that's something that the Federal Railroad Administration needs to grapple with," Homendy said.

One year later, with no new regulations or mandates and nearly half of the U.S. population living within two miles of a major rail line, should the communities across the US feel any safer today?

"I think that is a really important point. I think communities deserve to see action," Homendy said, "What I will say is there's a lot we've already put out there that can be acted on. There are some things that remain for our final investigative [East Palestine] report that we hope, that I will push, for action to be taken on immediately."

"Do you feel there was a lack of transparency after the train disaster in East Palestine?" Tromler asked. 

"Absolutely. I think the public, the surrounding communities in Pennsylvania and Ohio...They were really at a loss. They needed information," Homendy said, "They deserve that, and they need it."

Given the criticism of rail safety progress since the East Palestine derailment, Tromler asked Homendy how likely it is that another toxic derailment could happen now, one year later. 

"Absolutely. It can happen today. It can happen an hour from now," Homendy said, "What we need to ensure is that safety measures are taken to prevent that from occurring, but in the worst-case situation where it does occur again, we're going to be there, and we're going to remind everyone of what we've said for decades and what needs to be implemented. We are a very small agency with a really big voice, and we're not afraid to use it."

Watch '101 West' East Palestine: One Year Later, Are We Any Safer? Part 1

 

Watch '101 West' East Palestine: One Year Later, Are We Any Safer? Part 2

 

Watch the full interview with NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy:

 

Watch the full interview with US Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: