Railroad disaster in Ohio
On February 3, 2023, a freight train carrying highly toxic chemicals from the Norfolk Southern Railway derailed on the border between Ohio and Pennsylvania, USA, near the village of East Palestine. East Palestine with a population of 4700 people. As a result of the damage to the railroad cars, highly toxic chemicals were released into the air, water, and land.
The train that derailed was a Norfolk Southern freight train consisting of three locomotives with the leading number ES44AC #8152, nine empty cars and 141 loaded cars. The train was traveling from the St. Louis Railway Association terminal in Madison, Illinois, to Norfolk Southern’s Conway Yard in Conway, Pennsylvania. A driver, a conductor and a conductor trainee were aboard the 2.8 km long train.
Around 8:55 pm local time on February 3, 2023, about 50 cars derailed. Of the 141 cars on the train, 20 were carrying hazardous materials – vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethyl hexyl acrylate, ethylene glycol, monobutyl ether, isobutylene, flammable liquids and benzene derivatives, with butyl acrylate, vinyl chloride and ethyl hexyl acrylate in 14 cars.
Train collision in South Carolina
The South Carolina train collision is an accident that occurred on February 4, 2018, as a result of a collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a CSX freight train.
On February 4, 2018, at 2:35 a.m. local time, an Amtrak train traveling from New York to Miami collided with a CSX freight train.
The impact caused the locomotive and several passenger cars to derail.
The accident occurred near the city of Cayce outside of the District of Columbia.
Causes of the accident
According to the preliminary version, the accident occurred as a result of an Amtrak train going on the wrong track.
According to South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, the freight train was standing on the tracks near the main railroad line and was empty, while the passenger train was moving on the wrong tracks.
There is also an opinion in the media that the switches on the railroad track may have been set incorrectly, which caused the passenger train to leave the main track and collide with the freight train.