EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Norfolk Southern has released a six-point safety plan following last month's East Palestine train derailment.
The company said the plan is based on the preliminary findings of the NTSB investigation into the derailment.
“Reading the NTSB report makes it clear that meaningful safety improvements require a comprehensive industry effort that brings together railcar and tank car manufacturers, railcar owners and lessors, and the railroad companies,” said Norfolk Southern
President and CEO Alan H. Shaw. “We are eager to help drive that effort and we are not waiting to take action."
Norfolk Southern will immediately begin the following initiatives:
- Enhance the hot bearing detector network.
- Pilot next-generation hot bearing detectors.
- Work with industry on practices for hot bearing detectors.
- Deploy more acoustic bearing detectors.
- Accelerate our Digital Train Inspection program.
- Support a strong safety culture.
The NTSB investigation is focusing on an overheated barring in the Feb. 3 East Palestine derailment, where 38 cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed and several of the train's cars carrying hazardous materials burned.
Though no one was injured, nearby neighborhoods in Ohio and Pennsylvania were imperiled. The crash prompted an evacuation of about half the town's roughly 5,000 residents, an ongoing multigovernmental emergency response and lingering worries among villagers of long-term health impacts.
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