Crews found no signs of a spill after a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in west central Ohio Saturday afternoon, prompting a temporary shelter-in-place order for nearby residents, just one month after the company’s toxic train wreck on the other side of the state in East Palestine. Twenty cars of the 212-car train derailed while heading southbound near the town of Springfield, Norfolk Southern spokesperson Connor Spielmaker said. No injuries were reported. Representatives from Norfolk Southern, the Environmental Protection Agency and a Clark County hazmat team each independently examined the crash site in Clark County and verified there was no evidence of spillage, Springfield Township Fire Chief Dave Mangle said at a news conference. The Associated Press has the story:
20 cars of Norfolk S. cargo train derail in Ohio
Newslooks- SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP)
About 20 cars of a Norfolk Southern cargo train derailed near Springfield Saturday evening, the second derailment of the company’s trains in Ohio in a month, officials said.
But unlike the Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, a company spokesperson said there were no hazardous materials aboard the train, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
The train, which did not have passengers, derailed around 5 p.m. Saturday by State Route 41, near the Clark County Fairgrounds, the Dispatch reported. Springfield is about 46 miles (74 km) west of the state capital of Columbus, Ohio.
The 20 cars of the 212-car train derailed while traveling south, the Norfolk Southern spokesperson said.
Shawn Heaton told the Springfield News-Sun that he was waiting at the intersection as the train crossed the intersection and captured the start of the derailment on video.
“I was right there and I was playing on my phone and then I heard a loud bang. And when I heard the loud bang, I started recording,” Heaton said. “When I heard the bang, there was all kinds of debris and metal shoot out from under the cars and that’s when I started recording and you could see them start jumping off the tracks.”
The Clark County Emergency Management Agency has asked residents within 1,000 feet of the derailment to shelter in place, but the agency said it has not issued formal evacuation orders.
In an update at 8:50 p.m. EDT, the agency said officials are working to make sure that no hazardous materials were involved.
On Feb. 3, 38 cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train in East Palestine, in northeast Ohio near Pennsylvania, derailed and several of the train’s cars carrying hazardous materials burned.
Though no one was injured, nearby neighborhoods in both states 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.
