Norfolk Southern engineer raised concern about train ahead of derailment

A Norfolk Southern engineer expressed concerns to a supervisor about the length of the train that would later derail in East Palestine, Ohio, but the reservations went unaddressed, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The NTSB report released Thursday said the engineer, from Decatur, Ill., expressed the concerns to the yardmaster but was told “well, this is what they [Norfolk Southern] want.”

The engineer reportedly told investigators that “if you talk to the manager, they said this train was 100 percent rule compliant," adding "To me, in my opinion, you got 32 percent of the weight on the headend."

"Twenty percent in the middle and 40 percent weight on the rearend," they continued. "So, to me, that’s why we reported that to the yardmaster and like I said, this is what they want."

The NTSB announced an investigation in March into the company’s safety practices, about a month after the East Palestine derailment put national scrutiny on the railway. The agency released a trove of documents Thursday in connection with a two-day field hearing in the Ohio town investigating the accident.

“The NTSB is concerned that several organizational factors may be involved in the accidents, including safety culture. The NTSB will conduct an in-depth investigation into the safety practices and culture of the company,” the agency said in March. “At the same time, the company should not wait to improve safety and the NTSB urges it to do so immediately.”   

The East Palestine derailment in February released toxic fumes into the air and was tied to the death of thousands of fish in the area. Although no human deaths or injuries have been tied to the accident, rashes and headaches in the area led to lingering concerns about potential long-term health effects that have yet to fully manifest.

The accident also drew increased attention to safety on U.S. freight railways, which are almost entirely privately operated. Unions representing rail workers threatened to strike last year over lack of sick days and insufficient crews, but a bill passed by Congress and signed by President Biden required them to accept an offer from rail operators.

The NTSB has tied the derailment to an overheated wheel bearing, which did not reach the threshold at which the train is required to brake until it was too late to avert the derailment.

The Hill has reached out to Norfolk Southern for comment.