A Train Wreck Resulting in an Overheated Wheel in East Palestine, Ohio: Frustrated Residents and Cleansing Their Future
There was a train wreck in a small Ohio community that resulted in the release of a preliminary report from the transportation safety board.
While NTSB preliminary reports do not include a definitive cause nor draw conclusions, federal investigators probing the wreck have said surveillance video captured a wheel of the train bearing “in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment.”
Residents of the East Palestine, Ohio, community, voiced their frustrations during a CNN town hall Wednesday night where they spoke to both Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw, demanding answers about the derailment and the cleanup since, and reassurance about their future.
Jim Stewart, who has lived in East Palestine for more than six decades, said the wreck ruined his plans to retire soon and sell his house. He wondered if he would be able to grow his tomatoes this summer after officials said the soil was contaminated by chemicals.
It has been nearly three weeks since a train carrying chemicals derailed in the village. To make sure a disaster wouldn’t get worse, crews were able to release the chemical from the train cars and burn it off in a pit. Black smoke stayed over East Palestine for a number of days.
Residents who were evacuated five days after the train accident reported a variety of health issues, from nausea to bloody noses, because of the air and water being safe.
The initial report from the National Transportation Safety Board stated that a wheel bearing overheated, but they did not say if there was a conclusive cause of the Ohio train wreck.
The train had traveled between Alliance, Ohio, and Salem, Ohio at an average speed of 49 miles per hour, but then slowed to nearly half of that speed on its route between Salem and East Palestine.
Health care for the East Palestine train wreck: Congressman Trent Conaway in the Emergency Room at the YPOLE EDUCATION Facility
According to the mother and teacher in East Palestine, her son has had bloodied noses every day and she has had skin issues.
Josh was staying at the hotel as he didn’t feel safe going home, but he did have to visit the village a few times to be treated for headaches, dizziness and blood in his nose, and on Tuesday he went to the emergency room.
The US Environmental Protection Agency says that there are chemicals of concern at the site, including vinyl chloride. All these chemicals can change when they break down or react with other things in the environment, creating a stew of potential toxins.
“We’re getting everything we need, except answers,” East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway said Wednesday. “We need answers, as far as the health concerns.”
During the town hall, the governor of Ohio made it clear he did not want to minimize any medical issues that may be related to the train wreck.
Medical teams from the US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention and the US Department of Health and Human Services will also be on the ground this week at DeWine’s request, he said Friday.
The state also opened a health assessment clinic Tuesday for residents who worry their symptoms could be linked to the wreck. The Ohio Department of Health says that residents can ask for referrals if needed at the clinic, which includes nurses, psychiatrists and mental health professionals.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/23/us/ohio-train-derailment-east-palestine-thursday/index.html
A Town Hall Update on Norfolk Southern’s Clean-Up and the “Wastewater Crisis” after the Wreck Investigatio
Shaw, the CEO of Norfolk Southern, refused to answer questions regarding the wreck investigation and the fact that he was barred from talking about it.
Shaw said that they are going to get the clean-up right, and that they would invest in the long term health of the community. “I’m going to see this through, and we’re going to be here. We will work with these community leaders to help you thrive.
The EPA will step in if Norfolk Southern chooses not to comply with the order and then fin the company up to $70,000 a day for the rest of the year. The law allows us to charge Norfolk Southern up to three times the cost of the clean up.
The contaminated soil became a point of contention last week after a public document sent to the EPA on February 10 did not list soil removal among completed cleanup activities. It’s unclear what impact the soil that was not removed before the train reopened will have on the surrounding areas.
DeWine said over a million gallons of polluted water and over four thousand gallons of soil have been removed from East Palestine. The railroad tracks will also be taken up so that the soil can be removed, the governor has said.
In an update Wednesday, DeWine said the water coming from East Palestine’s Municipal System was safe to drink and would be tested weekly to make sure it remained clean.
Health authorities have also tested water from at least 74 private wells and those results are pending. The governor said residents who get their water from private wells should continue drinking bottled water until they get their test results.
The governor says that water quality in a second body of water in the area continues to improve. The update said no vinyl Chloride was found in the waterways.
“Since I (got) home from evacuating, I’m still not using the water because I never know if … they’re telling the truth or it’s a lie,” resident Nene Stewart said during the town hall. I use bottled water. I can not. I am not sure what they are saying. I don’t know who said the truth.
Injuries after a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train in Athens-Thessaloniki, Greece
Rescue workers are desperately searching for survivors after a head-on collision between two trains killed dozens of people and injured scores.
More than 85 were injured and at least 32 people were killed when a passenger train carrying more than 350 people collided with a freight train in central Greece late Tuesday, the Greek Fire Service said.
A teenage survivor told several reporters that he was riding in the fourth carriage when he felt a strong braking and saw sparks. Then everything suddenly stopped.
The first two carriages of the passenger train are the focus of the recovery efforts, according to the Greek Fire Service. The death toll is expected to rise.
The passenger train had been traveling from the capital Athens to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, which is renowned for its festivals and vibrant cultural life. The nationwide carnival ended on Monday with a public holiday.
Images on Greece’s state-owned public broadcaster ERT showed plumes of thick smoke pouring out of toppled carriages and long lines of rescue vehicles next to them.
Greek Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Varthakogiannis said 194 passengers had been taken safely to Thessaloniki and 20 people transferred by bus to the city of Larissa. 53 people remained in hospital, out of 85 who were injured.
Rail operator Hellenic Train said the northbound passenger train from Athens to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, had about 350 passengers on board.
Multiple train trains collided in a flame-sparked passenger train in the Vale of Tempe, Macedonia: Firefighters and the evacuation service
Multiple cars derailed and at least three burst into flames after the collision near the town of Tempe on Tuesday just before midnight. Rescue crews illuminated the scene with lights before dawn, as they searched for survivors in the mangled, smoking wreck.
Local media reports suggest that first two carriages of the passenger train were mangled and caught on fire, leaving them completely disintegrated by the morning.
Vassilis Polyzos, one of the first people to respond, said there was many big pieces of steel. “The trains were completely destroyed, both passenger and freight trains.”
The trains crashed just before the Vale of Tempe, a gorge that separates the regions of Thessaly and Macedonia. Costas Agorastos, the regional governor of the Thessaly area, told Greece’s Skai television the two trains crashed head on at high speed.
Rescuers wearing head lamps worked in thick smoke, pulling pieces of mangled metal from the cars to search for trapped people. Others scoured the field with flashlights and checked underneath the wreckage. Several of the dead are believed to have been found in the restaurant area near the front of the passenger train.
“The evacuation process is ongoing and is being carried out under very difficult conditions due to the severity of the collision between the two trains,” said Vassilis Varthakoyiannis, a spokesperson for Greece’s firefighting service.
A head-on collision of a passenger train and a freight train in Athens on a double-track in a major highway
A teenage survivor who did not give his name told reporters that just before the crash he felt a strong braking and saw sparks and then there was a sudden stop.
After a train wreck in Ohio last month, investigators began asking questions that have become familiar to U.S. media.
The trains appeared to be moving on the same track, heading towards each other while traveling on a double-track line. There was a head-on collision between the passenger train and the freight train as they exited a tunnel under a highway in the middle of the night.
The fire service has more than 150 firefighters and paramedics on the scene. The crews are using cranes and construction equipment to help move some of the heaviest chunks of steel.
Citing several government sources, ERT reports that more than 66 people were hospitalized, and at least six were still in intensive care as of Wednesday. There were 130 injuries.
The current death toll is 36 and is expected to go up as more people are identified, a task that’s been complicated because of the high temperatures in the first three carriages.
According to a statement shared in local media, Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned on Wednesday because he felt it was his duty to honor the people who died so unfairly.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis echoed that statement on Wednesday, saying in a tweet that “we will find out the causes of this tragedy and do everything in our power to make sure it never happens again.”
The stationmaster from the city of Larissa has been arrested and charged with manslaughter. The Hellenic train employee denied wrongdoing, saying the accident may have been a technical failure.
Getting a full picture of what happened may take some time, authorities say. Greek Railroad Workers Union President Yannis Nitsas said that the two drivers of the freight train were among the nine rail employees killed in the crash, reports the Associated Press.
Hellenic Train, the line’s operator, canceled dozens of its scheduled routes for Wednesday, saying in a statement that its “primary and exclusive concern” for the moment is to complete the evacuation and rescue process.
The crash is likely to spark a discussion around rail safety, according to an AP reporter in Athens. It may mirror the one taking place in the U.S. following the aftermath of an Ohio train derailment that sent hazardous materials spilling into the surrounding residential area.
The collision is already raising questions about whether lines, systems and signaling equipment were properly inspected during the sale, Gatopoulos said.