"COLUMBUS, Ohio — Railroads including the one whose train derailed and caught fire in Ohio would have to follow new safety rules under bipartisan legislation introduced Wednesday by the state’s two U.S. senators, even as regulators plan to step up inspections on tracks carrying the most hazardous materials.
The Railway Safety Act of 2023, co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and JD Vance, a Republican, and four others responds to the derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train in East Palestine, in northeast Ohio near Pennsylvania, on Feb. 3, when 38 cars derailed and several carrying hazardous materials burned.
Though no one was injured, nearby neighborhoods in both states were imperiled. The crash prompted an evacuation of about half the town’s roughly 5,000 residents, an ongoing multigovernmental emergency response and lingering worries among villagers of long-term health impacts."
Julie Carr Smyth and Josh Funk report for the Associated Press March 1, 2023.
SEE ALSO:
"Norfolk Southern CEO To Testify On Train Derailment Before US Senate" (Reuters)
"Ohio Train Derailment: Separating Fact From Fiction" (New York Times)
"Republicans Seize On Train Derailment To Go After Buttigieg" (Washington Post)
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