Norfolk Southern says the owner of the rail car that caused the fiery Ohio derailment in February failed to properly maintain it in the years before the crash, and the railroad wants to make sure that company and the owners of the other cars involved help pay for the costs.
The railroad filed a complaint Friday against all the car owners and shippers connected to the hazardous chemicals that spilled in the Feb. 3 derailment. As part of that, Norfolk Southern said GATX didn’t follow the car manufacturer’s recommendations for taking care of the plastic pellet car that has been blamed for the derailment.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in its preliminary report that the likely cause of the crash was a bearing on that car overheated. Its final report detailing everything that contributed won’t be done until at least next year. The derailment forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border and sent a towering plume of black smoke over the town of East Palestine
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