The Ohio train derailment was an accident waiting to happen

In the two weeks since 38 train cars carrying dangerous chemicals including vinyl chloride derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, there remain frustratingly few answers about exactly what happened or what the long-term environmental impact will be.

Now, 4,700 residents of the town have been told it is safe to return to their homes. However, residents are still on alert, reporting dead fish in the river and dead chickens in backyard coops. One resident told the Washington Post this week that the air smelled like nail polish remover and burning tires.

Railroad workers, government officials, and industry analysts have long warned that the disaster is the result of an industry that has aggressively cut costs, cut jobs, and resisted regulation for years.

And this type of rail disaster has precedent. The East Palestine derailment is not the first vinyl chloride spill. In 2012, a train derailed and leaked 23,000 gallons of vinyl chloride into a river in Paulsboro, New Jersey.

The critical question now is whether this kind of spill happens again and what we can do to prevent the next one. There are many technologies and strategies known to improve rail safety, but rail operators say they are too expensive to implement. The concern is also whether there will be any long-term danger to residents after the chemical cloud dissipates.

What do we know so far about the East Palestine Train derailment and chemical spill

Thirty-eight cars in the 141-car train, two miles long and operated by Norfolk Southern, carried a variety of chemicals including vinyl chloride. Toxic chemicals are delivered as cold liquids but quickly turn into explosive gases at normal room temperatures.

Two days after the accident, on February 5, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine warned that a catastrophic tanker failure “It could cause an explosion with the potential for deadly shrapnel to travel for miles” as residents were told to evacuate.

To prevent an explosion, responders decided to release vinyl chloride and set it on fire. This produced a very tall, pewter-colored column of smoke. The smoke spread across the city’s 4,700 residents, located between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Residents felt the impact immediately, reporting headaches and nausea.

Dustin Franz/AFP via Getty Images

Until February 12, the US Environmental Protection Agency posted a list of chemicals that leaked from trains. In addition to vinyl chloride, trains leak butyl acrylate, a chemical that can pollute water. Out of a total of 20 cars carrying known hazardous materials, 11 were among the cars that derailed.

The EPA this week has told residents it’s safe to return, though the agency is still inspecting homes and monitoring air quality. The agency said it detected no vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride byproducts from the spill.

On February 14, state and federal officials reported that a plume of butyl acrylate had reached the Ohio River, but that it was not safe for drinking water. “The spill did flow into the Ohio River, but the Ohio River is very large and is a body of water that can dilute pollutants very quickly,” said Tiffani Kavalec, head of the water division for the Ohio EPA, during a news conference on Wednesday.

During a news conference Wednesday, DeWine noted that state officials were not notified in advance that the train was carrying hazardous chemicals. “This train is apparently not considered a very hazardous material train, so the train is not required to notify anyone here in Ohio of what is in the train cars that pass through our state,” he said.

What derailments always wrecks such trains

The $80 billion U.S. freight rail industry, with 140,000 route miles, is the largest in the world and, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the most cost-effective, with the lowest accident rate.

An expansive freight rail network runs through almost every part of the country, connecting coastal metropolises to smaller cities in the middle, carrying 28 percent of US freight.

One of the challenges in a train disaster is that there are many actors involved with different responsibilities. Trains and railroads are owned by private companies, which are responsible for their own maintenance and inspections. This also means that much of the information about the operation is not public. But because rail is considered an important national industry, the federal government plays a major role in overseeing it.

But government oversight is confusingly divided among several agencies:

But when the train derailed, local first responders stepped in. They often lack the training and equipment to deal with chemical spills and when a derailment occurs in a remote area, it can take agonizing days to get the right personnel and tools. All of this can create a lot of confusion and frustration after a train accident, especially if hazardous chemicals are involved.

That said, the freight rail industry has improved safety over the years. While the 1980s saw years with more than 3,000 derailments, the DOT reports 1,044 train derailments in 2022.

But rail operators also face pressure to cut costs from investors and competition from trucking and shipping. One way railroads save money is by making trains longer, so fewer personnel per car. Between 2008 and 2019, the length of trains increased by 25 percent, according to the Government Accountability Office. Today there are regular trains over three miles long, often driven by just two people. The Government Accountability Office notes that the Federal Railroad Administration has no limits on train lengths.

“There are fewer derailments over time,” said Steven Ditmeyer, former head of the research and development office at the FRA. “The accidents that do occur, because of the longer trains, tend to be bigger accidents – more cars and more damage.”

Regulators also found more violations of hazardous materials rules. USA Today reports that federal officials found 36 percent more violations on trains in the past five years compared to the previous five years.

Another problem is the large population around the rail corridor. People were drawn to the area for the same reasons that the railroads were in the first place: there were jobs and resources. The community is already around a section of rail that has been isolated, so when a car jumps, more people are injured and many are unaware.

“They may not be aware of the hazards and how the hazards may affect them,” said David Bierling, a senior research scientist at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

So, when a train derails, the train and its response can quickly devolve into chaos and shock many people.

There are ways to prevent and reduce the impact of train disasters, but the industry says it is expensive

It’s unclear why the Norfolk Southern train derailed near East Palestine, and the NTSB’s investigation could take years. However, the agency said there are signs that overheated wheel bearings played a role.

“Surveillance video from the home shows what appears to be a wheel bearing in the final stages of an overheat failure before derailment,” according to the NTSB statement. “Wheel bearings suspected of being hot have been collected and will be examined by engineers from the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington, DC.”

There are ways to detect these problems early. Railroads have infrared sensors that can identify components that are starting to heat up, but these sensors can go up to 20 miles apart while an overheated bearing can pick up in two or three miles. The train conductor may not have received the warning.

According to Ditmeyer, one way to spot the problem early is with an acoustic detector. Failed wheel bearings often start making clicking noises, sometimes hundreds of miles before they overheat, so acoustic detectors on the track can buy operators more time to troubleshoot potential problems. Combined with in-car radio tags, the system can identify the car and the axle causing the problem.

Better brakes are another important safety measure. A new generation of electronically controlled pneumatic brakes (ECP) for trains creates redundancy in the braking system and allows the train to apply the brakes to all cars simultaneously. That means when a conductor brakes, the cars don’t all collide. In a report last year, the FRA said the brakes “improve the safety and braking performance of trains” but that railroad companies are reluctant to invest because of the cost.

The Obama administration made it a requirement for ECP brakes at least on trains carrying flammable materials, but the Trump administration in 2018 revoked that requirement. “The Department’s analysis shows that the expected cost of requiring ECP brakes will be significantly higher than the expected benefits of the requirement,” according to a Pipeline and Materials Safety Administration statement.

Image Angelo Merendino/Getty

A return to shorter trains could also be beneficial, according to Ditmeyer. It will reduce the internal forces and stress on the train so that derailments will not damage it. It will also effectively increase the staff of each train car.

But the railroad industry has been cutting jobs for years despite turning a profit. Over the past six years, the railroad company has cut 45,000 jobs, 29 percent of its workforce. “In my opinion, all of this directly contributes to the current situation – rail users are experiencing serious damage to rail services because, in many parts of the network, the railways do not have enough employees,” Martin Oberman, Chairman of the Surface Transport Council, said in a statement last year.

In particular, the industry relies on a system called precision-scheduled railroading that aggressively optimizes to load cargo with as few workers as possible. Railway workers don’t even get paid for sick days. Congress last year had to intervene to prevent a strike by rail workers due to understaffing and sick leave.

Investor pressure to reduce spending can be stronger than locomotives, so stronger regulations and oversight will be needed to enforce these safety measures and prevent future disasters.

“There are things that can be done, the problem is the cost of implementing them,” Ditmeyer said. “If the railroads start speeding up the trains, Wall Street will punish them.”

Part of the problem is also psychological. Train accidents get a lot of attention, but it’s difficult to convince local, state, and federal officials to commit to resources before a disaster strikes.

“It’s hard to stay focused on readiness,” Bierling said. “We cannot and must not be complacent.”