![]() Homendy also noted that sometimes NTSB recommendations are not implemented and admitted that’s frustrating.Ī copy of the report can be seen on the NTSB media Twitter page. This is about addressing their needs, their concerns.” But that doesn’t mean they won’t issue a safety recommendation if they see a safety issue that needs addressed immediately.ĭuring questioning about the political officials who have come to the small village to see the site, including former President Donald Trump, Homendy said “enough with the politics.There is a community that’s suffering. She said the final report may take 12 to 18 months to complete and there’s a reason it takes so long - because the NTSB is very methodical in its investigation and that takes time. Homendy said they’re still in the fact-finding phase. “You cannot wait until they fail,” she said regarding the roller bearings. The NTSB will look at that and at tank car design and derailment damage, accident response, railcar design and maintenance procedures and practices, Norfolk Southern’s use of wayside defect detectors, and railcar inspection practices. Roller bearings have a life of 100,000 miles to 300,000 miles and many things can cause them to overheat, such as fatigue cracking, water damage, mechanical damage, loose bearings or wheel defects. Homendy said the focus of the investigation will be the wheel set and the bearings. All the cars had placards, but the plastic placards melted in the fire. At least 20 hazmat cars were part of the train carrying lubricants, cooking oil, flammable gas and the vinyl chloride, with 17 cars fully loaded. The NTSB said it will look at how to protect important placards that help first responders know what’s inside a hazardous chemical car. The temperature in one of the five cars carrying vinyl chloride had started increasing to the point where explosion could occur. In talking about the controlled burn of rail cars containing vinyl chloride, Homendy stressed the NTSB had no part in that decision, but will evaluate whether the vent and burn followed established guidelines. During deceleration, the wheel bearing failed and car 23 derailed,” she said. “We have no evidence that the crew did anything wrong. There was also no evidence of track defect. She said no operational issue has been found with the wayside defect detectors, but they’re still looking at them. When the crew received the critical alarm for the 253-degree temperature, they started to slow and stop the train. In this case, the Norfolk Southern threshold for stopping and inspecting a car is 115 degrees. Homendy said the rail company sets the threshold for action regarding temperatures recorded by wayside detectors. At milepost 49.81, the suspect bearing’s temperature was 253 degrees Fahrenheit above ambient. At the next milepost 69.01, the temperature was 103 degrees Fahrenheit above ambient. The first at milepost 79.9 showed a temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit above the ambient temperature outside which was 10 degrees Fahrenheit at the time. The report goes into detail about temperatures of the wheel bearings measured by the wayside defect detectors along the way, with at least three detectors passed before the derailment. During this deceleration, an automatic emergency brake application initiated, and train 32N came to a stop.” The train engineer increased the dynamic brake application to further slow and stop the train. The wayside defect detector, or hot bearing detector (HBD), transmitted a critical audible alarm message instructing the crew to slow and stop the train to inspect a hot axle. In explaining the four-page preliminary report, which refers to the train as Train 32N, she said they have determined that car 23, a hopper car carrying plastic pellets, was the car that triggered the derailment and that “it was the combination of the hot axle and the plastic pellets that started the initial fire.”Īccording to the report, “Train 32N was operating with a dynamic brake application as the train passed a wayside defect detector on the east side of East Palestine, Ohio at milepost (MP) 49.81. “Know that the NTSB has one goal and that is safety and ensuring that this never happens again,” she said.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |