Norfolk Southern wants two other companies to help pay the regulations of $ 600 million during the classroom that she accepted on her disastrous train derailment in 2023 near the border of Ohio-Pennsylvania and the toxic chemicals that have been released and burned.
The railroad has filed the motion which should be judged from Monday to force the owner of the reference GATX and the manufacturer of oxyvinyl chemicals to share the cost of the colony because Norfolk Southern thinks that these companies are partly responsible for what happened in eastern Palestine, Ohio, on February 3, 2023.
This trial will not change anything on the amount of money that residents will receive from the regulations or any payment that the village or anyone should receive because they are all established in various settlement agreements. This case will only affect the company to write checks to pay the settlement of action in class.
Residents are still waiting to receive most of the money from the settlement due to the pending calls, although some payments have started to go out.
An assortment of chemicals has spread and caught fire after the train derailed in eastern Palestine. Three days later, the authorities opened five tank wagons filled with vinyl chloride because they feared that these cars could explode, generating a massive black plume of smoke which has spread over the city and forced evacuations.
Many residents are still worried today about the potential consequences on the health of these chemicals.
The derailment was the worst rail disaster because a raw oil train devastated the small Canadian town of Lac-Mégantique and killed 47 people in 2013. It prompted the United States to focus on rail security and the reforms, which were offered at Congress before stalling without passing.
Norfolk Southern says that companies share responsibility
Norfolk Southern has already lost a similar trial last year when he tried to force GATX and oxyvinyl to help pay the environmental cleaning after the derailment that cost Atlanta -based railroads over a billion dollars. He makes similar arguments again to try to get help to pay for the action for the class action.
“Norfolk Southern alone has paid the costs relating to the derailment despite many evidence that other parties share responsibility. This trial concerns the strengthening of the role that sender and owners of railway cars play in transport safety and to ensure that all those responsible pay their fair share,” said the railway in a press release.
Norfolk Southern, like most railways, does not have most of the cars it shoots, and the railway says that all the people involved in the shipment of dangerous chemicals have a certain responsibility to ensure their safety under federal regulations.
Norfolk Southern maintains that Gatx assumes a certain responsibility for derailment because he had the wagon filled with plastic pellets which caused the derailment when his bearing overheated, caught fire and failed that night, sending 38 cars of the rails.
Norfolk Southern also said that he was thinking that oxyvinyls should pay because the railroad says that the chemical manufacturer has provided incoherent and inaccurate information on his vinyl chloride before the officials decide to release and burn him.
Companies say that Norfolk Southern was responsible for security
Gatx and Oxyvinyls say that it would be ridiculous to keep them responsible for the derailment when Norfolk Southern operated and inspected the train and all the cars and was responsible for the delivery of the cargo safely.
“Norfolk Southern’s complaints against Gatx are baseless,” said the wagon owner in a press release.
Gatx said he had respected all relevant regulations to take care of his wagons. The company said that even if the car had been damaged six years earlier by standing parking in the middle of the flood waters of Hurricane Harvey, the railway should have identified the problem and repair it, sending Gatx the bill for repairs.
The National Transportation Safety Board said that the accident was caused by the failure of an overheating on the Gatx wagon. The railway sensors spotted the bearing that started to warm up in the kilometers before derailment, but it has reached a critical temperature and does not trigger alarm until just before the derailment. It left the crew time to stop the train.
Norfolk Southern recommended the ventilation and burning operation to release vinyl chloride based in part on the chemical information that oxyvinyls had published beforehand suggesting that a chemical reaction could occur and cause the explosion of tank cars.
But the NTSB confirmed in its survey which was not necessary because the reservoir cars were starting to cool off and the railway did not listen to the advice of oxyvinyl experts or share their opinions with the officials who made the decision.
“This trial is nothing more than Norfolk Southern’s continuing attempt to modify the blame, attention and financial responsibility of his derailment, response and vent and burns the decision to anyone other than himself,” said the company based in Texas. “The oxyvinyls did not cause the derailment, his tank cars have not broken and did not make the decision to link and burn VCM cars (vinyl chloride).”
The trial is expected to last two to three weeks.
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