Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board investigating the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, are collecting and examining evidence related to the crash, which placed the small town at significant risk due to the presence of industrial chemicals on the vehicle.
Local and state authorities evacuated all residents within one mile of the February 3 crash and started a controlled burn of the volatile chemicals to decrease the risk of an explosion. Vinyl chloride, a carcinogen used to manufacture PVC, was released from five train cars in the form of massive plumes of dark smoke visible throughout eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
In a Tuesday press release, NTSB officials said that a total of 38 cars derailed, while a fire damaged 12 additional cars. The train carried a total of 20 hazardous material cars, 11 of which derailed. The agency said it “continues to work with the investigative parties to determine what exactly caused the derailment and to evaluate the emergency response efforts.”
