A trial will determine which companies will pay how much of the settlement stemming from the Feb. 3, 2023, Norfolk Southern Railway toxic derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Atlanta-based Norfolk Southern filed a motion to compel GATX, a railcar owner, and OxyVinyls, a chemical manufacturer, to split the $600 million cost of a class action lawsuit settlement. The railroad believes the companies are partially responsible for the mishap.
The Associated Press reported that the railroad lost a similar lawsuit last year. It tried to compel the two companies to cover environmental cleanup costs partially.
The railroad has spent more than $1 billion on cleanup from the derailment, which sparked a nationwide discussion about rail safety.
Now, Norfolk Southern is making similar arguments again to split the costs of the settlement. The trial’s outcome will not change how much East Palestine residents receive as part of the settlement, just who will pay it.
“Norfolk Southern alone has paid the costs relating to the derailment despite ample evidence that other parties share in the responsibility,” the railroad said in a statement, according to the AP. “This trial is about reinforcing the role shippers and railcar owners play in transportation safety and ensuring everyone responsible pays their fair share.”
A “rail car’s defective wheel bearing caused the derailment and subsequent hazardous material release,” the NTSB said in June 2024.
Three “DOT-111” railcars were “mechanically breached,” which released “flammable and combustible liquids that ignited,” the NTSB said in its report. As a result, on Feb. 6, 2023, officials proceeded with a controlled explosion of five railroad cars carrying vinyl chloride.
The railcars were “being phased out of flammable liquids service because of its long record of inadequate mechanical and thermal crashworthiness and propensity to release lading in a derailment,” according to the NTSB.
While Norfolk Southern doesn’t own many of the railcars it hauls, GATX officials dismissed Norfolk Southern’s claims.
“Norfolk Southern’s claims against GATX are baseless,” it said in a statement, according to the AP.
Texas-based OxyVinyls offered a similar sentiment.
“This trial is nothing more than Norfolk Southern’s continued attempt to shift the blame, attention, and financial responsibility for its train derailment, response, and vent and burn decision to anyone other than itself,” the company said, the AP reported. “OxyVinyls did not cause the derailment, its tank cars did not breach, and it did not make the decision to vent and burn the VCM (vinyl chloride monomer) cars.”
State and federal dignitaries, including Vice President JD Vance, a former U.S. senator from Ohio, visited East Palestine in February to mark the second anniversary of the derailment.
As a senator, Vance supported the Railway Safety Act of 2023, which sought to make regulatory changes that proponents said would make railroads safer. It would have increased the maximum fine for rail safety violations and mandated railroads deploy more defect detectors to identify potential problems earlier.
Although the proposal received extensive media coverage, Congress did not pass the measure. According to a previous Youngstown television station report, Vance blamed then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, for not bringing the measure up for a vote.
On the eve of the anniversary, East Palestine and Norfolk Southern announced a $22 million settlement to resolve the village’s claims related to the derailment. The village plans to use the money for “priorities identified by the village in connection with the train derailment,” according to a release.
A federal judge approved the class action lawsuit settlement in September 2024. Under the deal, anyone within a 20-mile radius of the crash who files is eligible for compensation, and anyone within 10 miles is eligible for personal injury claim repayments, WOIO reported.
The trial could last several weeks.
