A Norfolk Southern string locomote in Calhoun County , Alabama derailed early Thursday good morning . Thirty - seven caravan cars jumped off the tracks around 6:50 a.m. ET , according tolocal news reports .
The incident is at least the freight company ’s fourth derailment in just over a calendar month — start out with thedisastrous East Palestine , Ohio derailment in former February . That earlier accidentforced the evacuation of thousands of people , pollute the local environment , killed an estimated 43,000 animals , and has head toongoing wellness headache for the community .
In this morn ’s incident , nobody was injured . Further , the power train was not carrying any known hazardous materials , a Norfolk Southern spokesperson , Connor Spielmaker , say in a midday press conference , per AL news program . Two of the railroad train cars involved had previously been carrying wild materials , but at the time of the derailment , the cars only contained residues and no leak or risk of exposure to the public was observe , Spielmaker said . An investigation into the incident ’s reason and a cleanup position of the tumble string car and their contents is underway , official say .
The site of the Alabama train derailment. No hazardous materials were reported to be on board at the time of the incident, according to Norfolk Southern. But other material spilled, and clean-up is ongoing.Photo:Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office(AP)
In a twist of fate , today ’s Norfolk Southern derailment occurred just hour before society executives were scheduled to prove before Congress . In that earshot , the railway corporation ’s CEO , Alan Shaw , told the assembled U.S. senators that he was “ profoundly sorry ” for the damage shape in East Palestine . “ I am compulsive to make this rightfulness , ” Shaw said , according to the New York Times . However the White House refused to confide to pay for residents of the Ohio town ’s foresightful - terminal figure aesculapian costs , wellness care , or the subsequent local economic damage — even when pressed by multiple senator , NYT note .
consignment gearing derailments are all too common , with more than 1,000 such incidentsrecordedin 2022 alone . Though most are far from the catastrophes of East Palestine , derailments are still preventable disastersthat can conduce to significant environmental and human consequences . In the backwash of the East Palestine , they ’re commence to get the attention they probably deserve .
track companies likeNorfolk Southern have summon ( and lobby ) aggressively against regulationsand measures , such as better pasture brake requirement , that would belike make payload transport safer and derailment less frequent . And for old age , the companies have been win . Yet now Norfolk Southern and others are facing increased pressure to change their ways . Earlier this workweek , the companybegan to announce safety adjustments . Additional regulations could be onthe path , hopefully to be enshrined in U.S. legal philosophy .
Yet the defect does n’t lie in with the train ship’s company alone . Politicians on both sides of the gangway have been complicit . At the end of 2022 , Transportation SecretaryPete Buttigieg , President Joe Biden , and Congressopenly worked to halt a planned rail tap . Union workers were disposed to shut down operations in an attempt to win paid disturbed leave and other basic protection . It ’s good to assume that many derailments are the result of human error , and pale and trite railway workers , force to continue working , probably make a whole sight more error . Ergo : paid sick day equal safe loading transport .
In Thursday ’s hearing , Norfolk Southern CEO Shawstill refused to committo providing all of his company ’s workers with ante up sick of leave-taking , where an authorized ten-strike back in December 2022 might have forced the upshot . Senator Bernie Sanders question Shaw on the issue , repeatedly asking the exec for uncloudedness . In reply , Shaw supply vague , equivocations . “ You voice like a politician , ” an cheesed off Sanders eventually tell .
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