On February 3, 2023, at 8:55 p.m. EST (UTC−5), a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, United States. The train was carrying hazardous materials when 38 cars derailed. Several railcars burned for more than two days and emergency crews also conducted controlled burns of several railcars, which released hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the air. Residents within a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) radius were evacuated. Agencies from Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia assisted in the emergency response.
Following the derailment, reaction and commentary focused on industry working conditions and safety concerns, including: the lack of modern brake safety regulations, the implementation of precision scheduled railroading (PSR), reduced railway workers per train, and increased train lengths and weight. Critics said train companies had failed to invest in maintenance to prevent accidents, even though they conduct stock buybacks.
Several unions and consumer organizations expressed concern about private ownership of railways and a "profit-driven approach", which they said puts workers and communities at high risk. The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) also called for public ownership of the US railway systems.
Major US railroads promised to overhaul safety in the industry as a direct result of the East Palestine disaster. Although the number of derailments rose in the top five freight railroads in 2023, Norfolk Southern was the only railroad among the five to report a decline in accidents in that period. A group of the railroads also promised to enroll in the Federal Railroad Administration's "close-call incident reporting system." NS was the first to join the system, with BNSF joining a few months later.
In June 2024, the National Transportation Safety Board held a meeting in East Palestine to review its findings on the incident. The board voted unanimously to accept the findings and announced it would issue a report. Norfolk Southern announced it had endorsed the agency's recommendations.
By October 2023, Norfolk Southern removed more than 167,000 tons of contaminated soil and more than 39 million U.S. gallons (150 million liters) of tainted water from the derailment site.
As of February 2025, Norfolk Southern had committed more than $115 million to East Palestine, including $25 million for a regional safety training center and $25 million in planned improvements to East Palestine's park. The regional safety training center was removed from the settlement in January 2025. The company also paid $22.21 million directly to residents.
In January 2025, East Palestine and Norfolk Southern reached a $22 million settlement. The settlement was to fund village priorities related to the derailment, and acknowledged the $13.5 million Norfolk Southern had already paid for water treatment upgrades and new police and fire equipment. It also reaffirmed Norfolk Southern's $25 million commitment to ongoing improvements at East Palestine City Park, separate from the settlement. On February 3, 2025, a lawsuit alleged that at least seven people, including a one-week-old infant, died as a result of the toxic chemicals leak.
Background
The train that derailed was Norfolk Southern 32N, operating from the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis yard in Madison, Illinois, to Norfolk Southern's Conway Yard in Conway, Pennsylvania, on the Fort Wayne Line. Aboard the 9,300-foot-long (1.76 mi; 2.8 km) train were an engineer, conductor, and conductor trainee.
The train consisted of three General Electric AC44C6M locomotives (Nos. 4178 and 4224 on the head-end and No. 4412 in the middle acting as distributed power), 141 loaded cars and nine empty cars. Other reports note one more car, for a total of 151 cars, weighing 18,000 tons. Of those cars, 20 were carrying hazardous materials, including chloroethene (vinyl chloride), butyl acrylate, 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, isobutylene, combustible liquids, and benzene residue. The train departed Madison on February 1, and had suffered at least one mechanical failure before the derailment.
Derailment
Security footage from a business in Salem, Ohio (20 miles [32 km] northwest of East Palestine), and a Ring doorbell camera from New Waterford, Ohio (4 miles [6 km] northwest from East Palestine), show fire emanating from underneath a rail car as it went by on the tracks. After this, at around 8:55 pm EST on February 3, 2023, 38 cars derailed on the east side of East Palestine, near the border with Pennsylvania. Of the 38 derailed cars, 11 were tank cars that dumped 100,000 US gallons (380,000 L) of hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride, benzene residue, and butyl acrylate.
About 48 hours later, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released preliminary findings indicating that the derailment was caused by a mechanical problem on one of the railcars' trucks, which may be connected to reports that an axle was observed throwing sparks about an hour before. The crew received an alarm from a wayside defect detector shortly before the derailment indicating a mechanical problem, and then an emergency brake application was initiated.
Emergency response and burn off
Nearly 70 emergency agencies from Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania mobilized in response. East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway declared a state of emergency.
Norfolk Southern personnel were first to respond on February 3. On February 4, they noticed water spillage into Sulphur Run and Leslie Run, and installed booms and underflow dams to separate the floating pollutant. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Norfolk Southern began monitoring air quality on February 3. According to the EPA, humans can smell butyl acrylate at a concentration lower than the screening level (exposure limit). The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommended exposure limit for butyl acrylate is a time-weighted average of 10 ppm (55 mg/m3).
On February 5, a temperature change in one of the train cars caused fears of an explosion with the potential to disperse shrapnel as the fires continued to burn. Although five cars containing vinyl chloride remained intact following the crash, the relief valve on one of the cars had malfunctioned. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine activated the Ohio National Guard to assist local authorities in what he called "a matter of life and death". Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro ordered an evacuation in areas of Beaver County which bordered the site. Officials in both states went door-to-door to evacuate residents. The fire from the accident burned until February 5. A Civil Emergency Message was issued by the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, PA at 10:10 PM for Columbiana County, Ohio.
On February 6, DeWine and Shapiro ordered the mandatory evacuation of all residents within a 1-by-2-mile (1.6 by 3.2 km) area. In an effort to prevent further explosions, Norfolk Southern emergency crews, at the direction of Unified Command under the East Palestine fire chief, conducted a controlled release and burn of the five tanks of vinyl chloride into the air. The EPA was consulted in the decision to vent and burn. Small shaped charges were used to breach the tank cars, and the vinyl chloride was allowed to flow into a trench, where it was ignited by flares. The burn caused black clouds to form above the area, and released phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air. Although officials reported that air quality readings were not showing anything concerning, residents in nearby Mahoning and Trumbull counties reported a chemical smell in their areas. Officials in the Youngstown region advised residents to stay indoors. Air monitoring conducted on February 7–8 revealed an increase in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air below the screening level and an increase in particulate matter, probably from the soot.
On February 8, state and federal EPA workers noticed oily spillage on the soil and notified Norfolk Southern, which began removing it with a vacuum truck.
On the evening of February 8, Norfolk Southern resumed traffic through the town. East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway said that he was displeased because the railroad had said that trains would not run again until all residents were able to return to their homes. On the morning of February 10, Amtrak's Capitol Limited resumed passing through East Palestine.
The evacuation was lifted on February 9 after the EPA reported that the air inside and outside the evacuation zone had returned to normal levels. Although toxicants were detected at the derailment site, they were not detected outside the area. The Ohio EPA also reported that drinking water (sourced from different waterways) was safe. In a testing report from February 8, the Ohio EPA showed WKBN-TV that vinyl chloride, benzene, some chlorinated organic compounds, and other VOCs were not detected in the water. As of January 2024, Norfolk Southern has committed $4.3 million to provide enhanced filtration to East Palestine's drinking water.
Toxic chemicals were borne into the atmosphere as they polluted the air in 16 states, 540,000 square miles (1,400,000 km2), 14% of the US, according to a 2024 study from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. High concentrations of chloride were discovered in Virginia, South Carolina and Wisconsin with the highest concentrations on the Canada-New York border, downwind of East Palestine. Most of the chemicals had dissipated after two to three weeks. The study also showed unforeseen high pH levels and unusually high levels of base cations. Both measurements were greater than the 99th percentile vs. historic levels.
Burnoff unnecessary
In February 2024, Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), testified before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation (SCCST) that the controlled release and burn of vinyl chloride was not necessary. Homendy stated that the decision-makers relied on contractors who were alarmed by the limited temperature readings they were able to get, combined with the violent way one of the tank cars released vinyl chloride with a roar from a pressure release valve after hours of calm. However, Homendy also stated that OxyVinyls, the company that manufactured and was shipping the volatile chemicals, did not believe polymerization was occurring. During the NTSB field hearing in June 2023, OxyVinyl's on-scene expert testified he had said he at one point believed polymerization could be occurring. DeWine was not made aware that officials from OxyVinyls were at the scene of the derailment. Norfolk Southern and their clean-up contractors testified that their rationale for the burn was the belief that polymerization of the vinyl chloride was imminent; this required quickly increasing ambient temperature and an oxygen infusion – neither of which occurred. The motivation in conducting the controlled release was to prevent an uncontrolled explosion. Officials from OxyVinyl, also involved in litigation from the incident, testified that the temperature in the derailed tank cars was descending, no deadly chemical reaction was occurring, so the controlled burn was unnecessary. The cars could have been left to cool down. NS maintains that OxyVinyls' opinion was not clear and conflicting, and contradicted previous literature the company had published. The smoke and residue of the burning chemicals have concerned local citizens about long-term health ramifications. Both Ohio senators reacted to Homendy's announcement. JD Vance wondered why the unnecessary burnoff was rushed and suggested Norfolk Southern wanted to open the rail line and move freight again. Sherrod Brown said the burnoff provided proof that Norfolk Southern considered profit more than safety. Data collected by the U.S. EPA, Norfolk Southern, and independent scientists have indicated the air is safe. The NTSB announced its final findings on the cause of the accident at a board meeting on June 25, 2024, at East Palestine High School. This was the second time the full board of the NTSB visited East Palestine. The first was in the summer of 2023.
Health and environmental concerns
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources stated the chemical spill killed an estimated 3,500 small fish across 7.5 mi (12 km) of streams as of February 8. A later estimate put the number of minnows at 38,222, with other species of animals at 5,500, totaling 43,222. Several captive foxes at Parker Dairy became sick over the following weekend, and one died, which its owner attributed to the derailment. Material from the crash was observed in storm drains and detected in samples from Sulphur Run, Leslie Run, Bull Creek, North Fork Little Beaver Creek, Little Beaver Creek, and the Ohio River. An oily product was seen seeping into the soil. Emergency response staff are assessing potential impacts on aquatic life. On February 23, Mary Mertz, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, stated that the derailment potentially killed more than 43,000 fish, crustaceans, amphibians and other marine animals. State officials said on February 23 that they have not seen deaths or other negative effects on animals living on the land. However, residents report that pets and animals as far as 10 miles (16 km) from the derailment site died overnight during the controlled release of vinyl chloride. In late March, CBS News reported that inhabitants have continued to experience health symptoms, despite officials asserting that no harmful chemicals were detected in the air or water. Employees of the CDC who investigated the derailment in early March also experienced symptoms.
Neil Donahue, a chemistry professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), expressed concern about the potential production of dioxins during the burning of vinyl chloride, while Lynn Goldman, dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health, worried more about residual vinyl chloride. Gaseous pollutants dissipate quickly in the air, but dioxins are persistent.
William M. Diesslin, board chair of the Institute of Hazardous Materials Management, suggested that burning vinyl chloride was "the lesser of two evils", from reading from the emergency response guide and from safety data sheets. DeWine's press secretary defended the decision months later.
The Guardian reported, quoting a police officer who presented at the incident: "We were never told about the cargo on the train and we were never told to wear protective clothing, although it did not matter because our personal protective equipment (PPE) dates back to 2010."
In early March 2023, seven investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including some from the Epidemic Intelligence Service, fell sick when inspecting the crash site, with symptoms matching those of East Palestine residents.
In summer 2023, the cleanup efforts continued as contractors had removed 25,000,000 gallons of contaminated water and 80,000 tons of tainted soil without a plan for cleaning up Sulphur Run, a creek that runs through downtown.