Public indignation increases as the process accuses Norfolk southern derailment

A process that first stated that people died due to the disastrous East 2023 train derail. It was deposited before the second anniversary of the toxic accident near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, against the background of a flurry of us. disputes.

On Monday, JD Vance Vice President is also expected to visit the small community near the accident site he represented as a senator, together with the recently confirmed head of President Donald Trump of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin.

The new process that will be made public later Monday contains the first seven wrong death requests against the Southern Norfolk-Including the death of a 1 week child. He also argues that the railway and his contractors have obtained the cleaning while EPA officials and centers for disease control and prevention signed on it and failed to warn residents on health risks. Many of the other parts of the process cites persistent, unexplained health problems, along with the concerns they could develop something worse.

“Our customers will truth. They want transparency, ”said lawyer Kristina Baehr about about 750 people. “They want to know what they were exposed to, who were hidden. They want to know what happened and why it happened. And they want responsibility. “

The process provides some examples of persistent effects on families, but does not include details about deaths.

At least nine other processes were submitted last week by individuals and companies claiming that the grease grease is to blame for derails, and the action of 600 million dollars does not offer almost sufficient compensation and no sanction of the railways enough to stimulate them to stimulate them to prevent future derails. The amount of the dollar represents only a small part of the revenues of $ 12.1 billion that the railway has generated in each of the last two years.

Dozens of railway cars took care of the rails on February 3, 2023, after an overheating bearing failed. Several of the cars carrying dangerous materials broke and spilled their fire that caught fire. But the disaster was worsened three days later, when officials opened five tank cars filled with vinyl chloride and burned that toxic plastic ingredient, because they were afraid to explode.

Investigators at the National Transport Safety Council established that the controversial vent and burning operation never had to be done, because there were evidence that the railway ignored that the reservoir cars began to cool and would not explode. State and local officials who, finally, made the decision to release and burn vinyl chloride – generating a bumps of thick and black smoke, which spread to the city and region – said no They have never heard anything that suggests that tank cars would not explode.

“Water had rules to be respected and chose not to follow his own rules. The EPA was too busy trying to recover the train on the road to protect people, ”said Baehr.

The officials did not immediately answer questions about the new process and separate federal requests that were filed against EPA and CDC. But in the past, Ape defended the role of the agency in the ventilation operation and burns, saying that they are only there to advise the potential consequences and to measure the resulting contamination.

Baehr said that the EPA and CDC approach regarding the derailment followed a similar model that he saw in other environmental disasters with which he was involved, such as toxic fuel spill in Marina that contaminated the water from Hawaii . She said agencies tend to reduce the health risks that people face. The inhabitants expressed their frustration with the data that EPA reveals and the refusal of class lawyers to reveal what their own test expert has found.

A spokesman of Norfolk Southern Railroad said he cannot comment on the litigation. The railways agreed with the $ 600 million class action with residents who lived or worked 20 miles from derails and a separate resolution with the federal government, where Norfolk Southern committed to pay for the entire cleaning. and set up funds to pay medical exams and monitoring of drinking water. But the railway did not recognize any crime in any settlement.

Some people who lived near the derail have started receiving payments for personal injury as part of class action, but almost half of the solution remains waiting, as some residents residents of higher compensations and more information about contamination.

Therefore, the main payments of up to $ 70,000 per household will not go out until the call is resolved.

The nine other new processes included claims of a pipeline producer, dog canines and a fault that the derailment affected business in various ways, from personnel deficiencies to having to close or move because of customers’ concerns.

A business at about a quarter of a kilometer (0.4 kilometers) since the alleged cleaning works created “smoke, debris and smells” that reached their property and led to routine floods. The dog breeder who owned a business in the neighboring Pennsylvania blamed the toxic chemicals because it caused the deaths of at least 116 puppies and three adult dogs.