Workers Warned of Danger Before Train Derailed In Ohio

"When Norfolk Southern train 32N derailed in Ohio earlier this month, it was not the first time it had experienced problems on the route.

The train, which originated from Madison, Illinois, on the evening of Feb. 1, broke down at least once before derailing in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 3, according to employees familiar with the matter.

The employees say there were concerns among those working on the train over what they believed was the train's excessive length and weight — 151 cars, 9,300 feet long, 18,000 tons — before it reached East Palestine, which contributed to both the initial breakdown and the derailment."

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230216__TA02Train

[mr.alabama]

When are they gonna start holding these CEO’s of these companies accountable for the consequences that arise from the deadly decisions they make

[jamespricesc]

I worked as a Train conductor on freight trains for over 27 years. What is happening is that the railroads are putting people at risk ( on the job and the public) with these 2 mile long trains. What is so stupid is that if they'd just share 10% of the profits made and put it into more employees and safety that these derailments would be a lot less able to happen. Pure greed, and facilitated by our government.

[stitches]

I am from East Palestine, Ohio. I have indicated before that my son and his girlfriend live across the street and a block away from this disaster. I live three blocks from the train tracks that cross our main road into town. If the derailment happened four blocks over by the main street in town I can't imagine there would be an East Palestine because as soon as you cross the tracks onto market, our downtown, there is a gas station to the left as soon as you cross the tracks and there is another gas station across the street. The railroad tracks are right behind the Marathon Gas station, like a few feet. If the trains tanks cars would of derailed right there they would have rolled on that gas station and more than likely caught the plaza near by on fire. Leslie run creek is less than, a tenth of a mile from where I live. That's where the dead fish are. JD Vance, Ohio's new senator, Ron Johnson and Senator Sherrod Brown were across the street from my house. JD was was right in front of the red church talking about East Palestine. He was standing by the water at Leslie run creek earlier and stuck a wooden stick in the creek down about a couple of inches and when he pulled out the stick holy ???? a lot of oil/contamination came up to the surface. Just type in his name on YouTube search bar to see the video. I was at the DR.S office as my throat glands have been swollen and burning since the day after. My son the lives near the epicenter told me yesterday the he was vomiting, his chest hurt and he was having trouble breathing. He went to the doctor the day before. I went to a meeting in our town yesterday and about 100 of us from town got to listen to attorneys and ask some questions. Norfolk was not their, just people in town. This wasn't the Town Hall that was at the High School that was from 7-9 last night. One of the attorneys asked if any of the people there had any issues with their health and most of them said sore throats, sinus, rashes, and a few had some skin burns. Everyone of them said they were given Prednisone ? and all said the doctors couldn't say what caused this. I asked to have some bloodwork done but a nurse told me that they would not be able to get results of any of the chemical/toxins? The people in town are just effing angry. Norfolk canceled coming to the Town Hall at the school last night because they were concerned because of death threats. The whole Town Hall ended up being nothing like it was suppose to be. I was ready to go there and I could not believe the people and the media that were standing outside in line. We were trying not to run anybody over on the street. We had to go back home. It was insane outside. It was better that Norfolk cancelled because I was worried that there would be a problem. The people here are furious!

[pop-pop-bill]

I am a locomotive engineer for a class1 railroad. I am afraid to tell you which one but let's just say my employer has been in the news a lot lately. When my employer decided to make the trains twice as long they ran into a snag. Periodically along the tracks are a safety appliance called a hot wheel detector. The detector takes the temperature of the wheels and tells the crew if there is a problem via radio. The snag was that the trains are so long there isn't anywhere we could stop the train without blocking a road crossing or sitting directly on a detector. This would give us a hit from the detector and at which time the conductor would have to inspect the train. Inspecting a 3-mile long train and walking back to the head-end could take quite a bit of time and even longer in the winter. This meant delays and recrews . The problem with that was they furloughed so many of my co-workers there was no one left back home to come recrew us. My employers solution to this problem was to simply remove every other detector. I can't say that this was the cause for the derailment in Ohio. But I am afraid to tell you that the ramifications from the get-rich-quick scheme called precision scheduled railroading will be with us for a while. PS I agree that MTG is an idiot

[diamondsndregs]

As an Ohioan who doesn't put blind faith in either party, this is what I needed to hear today.

[amandabell]

This same company had a train derail near my uncle's house several years ago. They need to be investigated in depth.

[dougmcclintic]

YOU PEOPLE (general public) HAVE NO IDEA...I've been an engineer for 30 years these trains are totally unacceptable, and this train wasn't even that big compared to most of the trains we run. it was big, no doubt, but i wouldn't consider it huge at all, most of the trains i run are well over 10, 000 feet long usually closer to 14, 000 feet and usually around 20, 000 TONS, think about all that weight rolling at 50 MPH....that's a lot of weight to stop. It takes a real skill to run these trains these days and make no mistake we are all extremely fatigued the piddly 1 day extra of sick time we got stuffed down our throat by the Biden administration didn't help AT ALL, IT'S A SLAP IN THE FACE, i'm not saying fatigue played a role in this but maybe people will wake up and this will be brought up when we negotiate our next contract. These accidents happen DAILY on the railroad but the public don't hear about those only the ones that wipe out entire towns get any press coverage.

[pop-pop-bill]

I am a locomotive engineer for a class 1 railroad. I'm afraid to tell you which one but let's just say my employer has been in the news a lot lately. When my employer decided to make the trains twice as long they ran into a snag. Periodically along the tracks are a safety appliance called a hot wheel detector. The detector takes the temperature of the wheels and tells the crew if there's a problem via radio. Eg. sticking brakes, locked axel, hot bearings and sliding wheels. The snag was that the trains are so long there isn't anywhere we could stop the train without being on a railroad crossing or sitting directly on a detector. This would give us a hit from the detector and at which time the conductor would have to inspect the train. Inspecting a 3-mile long train and walking back to the head-end could take quite a bit of time and even longer in the winter. This meant delays and recrews. The problem with that was they furloughed so many of my co-workers there was no one left back home to come recrew us. My employers solution to this problem was to simply remove every other detector. I can't say that this was the cause for the derailment in Ohio. But I am afraid to tell you that the ramifications from the get-rich-quick scheme called precision scheduled railroading will be with us for awhile.

[tomtom]

100% chance workers get blamed for it instead of management.

[Cloud-zblw]

So they just let it happen to save money. Unbelievable.

[jpducati]

The Government and Corporations dont give a ratz azz about the people.

[nicholasklangos]

These politicians and companies that risk the safety of our cities and children need to be held accountable!! Where is the money that was supposed to repair our infrastructure and power sources!! Criminals will pay!!

[BRLambert]

It's almost unreal that the train was so unreliable to begin with, was at least 2 times the length that was safe AND WHAT WAS BEING CARRIED!!!

Norfolk Southern RR absolutely had to know this would happen eventually. They just know that whatever it WILL cost to to the bare minimum in damage control when your company does something catastrophic like this and that they would make more in profit either way. This was a financial decision to allow this train to run itself into the literal ground regardless of what the contents of those cars carried.

[leptonsoup]

We need regulation on train length and weight, particularly when dangerous chemicals such as vinyl chloride are being hauled. There is also the issue of long trains blocking emergency vehicles for excessive lengths of time. This is INSANE. Only corporate capture can explain this.

[joshburger]

In my hometown the Union Pacific regularly runs "double trains". They are essentially two full length trains looped together. They'll have a couple locomotives on the front, several in the middle and another 1-2 on the end. They are routinely 250-300 cars long and take 7 minutes to pass. It can be a big problem blocking roads during emergency fire, ems and police calls.

[goingyard]

150 cars??? Imagine waiting at a crossing for that foolishness.

[RonJacksonToahani]

Only when all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.

—Cree Indian Prophecy

[Paul_Wetor]

The train was 1.7 miles long. The crew has no idea what's happening behind them. Trying to walk the length of the train for a visual inspection is not practical.

[MaJoRMJR]

The vast majority of regulations are there to keep workers safe, when you deregulate you are therefore making things less safe or even unsafe and making the probability of a disaster more likely to happen, and more likely to happen more than once

[marcovega]

It's called Precision Railroading..more cars less crew...less crew ..less safety..now u know why they want to strike