More than a month after a Norfolk Southern Railway train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), an agency under the Department of Transportation, have announced investigations into the company.
The NTSB announcement came hours after Norfolk Southern announced that an employee died early Tuesday in Cleveland, Ohio. The Tuesday announcement cites February 3 incident and four others as the cause of the investigation, including the deaths of two other employee or contractors and three train derailments.
The statement says the agency is opening a “special investigation” into Norfolk Southern’s “organization and safety culture.” It is unusual for the NTSB to investigate a company’s safety practices as the agency typically only investigates individual incidents.
The announcement also encourages Norfolk Southern to be proactive in its approach to safety.
“Given the number and significance of Norfolk Southern accidents,” the announcement says, “the NTSB also urges the company to take immediate action today to review and assess its safety practices, with the input of employees and others, and implement necessary changes to improve safety.”
Hours after that declaration, the FRA said it began a 60-day “supplemental safety assessment” of the railway.
“We are initiating this further supplemental safety review of Norfolk Southern, while also calling on Norfolk Southern to act urgently to improve its focus on safety so the company can begin earning back the trust of the public and its employees,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has been heavily criticized for his response to the East Palestine chemical disaster, said in a statement.
After the employee's death on Tuesday morning, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan H. Shaw released a statement saying that it would cooperate with the NTSB in its investigation and would hold “safety stand-down briefings” that would “reach” every employee in their network.
It is not clear from the statement what those meetings will entail or if they will be individual or group meetings.
“Moving forward,” the statement continues, “we are going to rebuild our safety culture from the ground up. We are going to invest more in safety. This is not who we are, it is not acceptable, and it will not continue.”
The other incidents cited in the NTSB announcement include a December 8, 2021 contractor death in Reed, Pennsylvania; a December 13, 2022 employee death in Bessemer; a train derailment in Springfield, Ohio, on Saturday; and a train derailment in Sandusky, Ohio, from October 28, 2022.
Railway labor unions, who have been warning about safety concerns in the railway industry, say they welcome the investigations by the NTSB and FRA.
“We mourn the loss of the Norfolk Southern conductor who was killed on the job today,” said Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department, “and hope that this investigation will lead to real reforms to create a safer industry for workers and communities like East Palestine.”