National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy cast doubt Wednesday on the justification for a controlled burn following a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio last year.
She spoke before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Some committee members focused on the recent mid-air door plug accident on an Alaska Airlines flight, but Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance turned her attention to the disaster near Ohio’s border with Pennsylvania.
“The risk of the car exploding was described to me as high,” DeWine said, “a high probability that it could explode.” The problem is the NTSB has found temperature was not rising. Vance asked Homendy to confirm whether the initial temperature of 135 degrees had dropped and held at 126 degrees. Vance noted the emergency responders on the ground, including DeWine, were told they “had to make a decision in less than 13 minutes” without the benefit of hearing any contrary opinion.She went on to add that OxyVinyl had employees on the scene, warning Norfolk Southern that they didn’t believe there was an out-of-control chemical reaction happening in the train car. “It was cooling down,” she insisted, but that information wasn’t relayed to decision-makers.
“A lot of people, including me, are wondering, did they do this not because it was necessary, but because it allowed them to move traffic and freight more quickly?” he asked.
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