Ohio train derailment: Footage shows train did not stop when it caught fire
Misty Severi
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New footage of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, showed the train catching fire roughly 20 minutes outside of the town, leaving residents to wonder whether the disaster could have been avoided.
The National Transportation Safety Board obtained two videos of the train derailment on Feb. 3. One of the videos showed sparks underneath one of the 140 train cars near the town of Salem, Ohio. If the crew on the train had proper warning, they would only need 1 mile to brake.
Ohio train on fire
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“We have obtained two videos which show preliminary indications of mechanical issues on one of the rail car axles,” NTSB member Michael Graham said at a press conference Tuesday.
A second video showed the train moving over a hotbox detector near Salem, which is supposed to flag the train’s crew if one of the cars gets too hot. Graham said the crew was notified of a problem from one of the detectors, and they pressed the emergency brake. But he did not say whether the warning was from the hotbox detector.
The train had also passed over a detector outside of East Palestine.
Investigators are now examining all the detectors on the train’s route to determine where the error occurred. Wayside detectors monitor the overall health of the cars, such as the condition of their axles. The first report in the investigation is expected to be shared in early March.
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Residents in East Palestine and its surrounding community were evacuated in early February when 50 of the train’s cars derailed in the town. Twenty of those cars were carrying toxic chemicals such as vinyl chloride. The train was heading from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, at the time of its accident.
Authorities so far have indicated that the incident occurred because of an axle malfunction.