'Enough with the politics': Derailment investigator takes aim at partisan sniping, misinfo

The head of the federal probe into the Ohio train derailment lashed out Thursday at "politics" and "misinformation" she said are clouding the ongoing investigation and expressed her exasperation that vital safety recommendations can be ignored amid the noise.

"Enough with the politics on this," National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said Thursday at an update on her agency's probe. "I don't understand why this has gotten so political. This is a community that is suffering. This is not about politics."

She was responding to a question about Donald Trump's visit Wednesday to the derailment site in East Palestine, Ohio, which he used to slam Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the Biden administration for their response.

"There's a lot of misinformation on what would have prevented this," she said. "Everyone is guessing. I saw it all over media, which was driving me nuts. Those solutions, all of the ones I heard of, are not the solutions."

She hinted at an article that circulated soon after the derailment blaming it on a rule that would have mandated faster brakes on some trains, which was withdrawn in 2017. She said those brakes would not have prevented this derailment or even have significantly reduced its severity.

Homendy said the speculation about cause, much of which is false, is doubly frustrating because once the final report is issued, "we get ignored." Though the NTSB investigates serious transportation accidents, the changes their investigations recommend are not mandated unless an agency or Congress decides to act on them.

NTSB's preliminary report released Thursday showed that the engineer at the controls of the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in Ohio tried to stop the train following a warning about an overheating wheel, but by that time several cars had already come off the tracks.

According to the report, before it derailed, the train passed three detectors intended to alert train crew to physical problems, including overheating wheels. Though the train detectors showed one of the wheels was steadily getting hotter, it did not reach a temperature Norfolk Southern considered critical until it passed the third detector and alerted, as outlined by the National Transportation Safety Board.

When the train passed that last detector, the detector “transmitted a critical audible alarm message instructing the crew to slow and stop the train to inspect a hot axle,” the report said.

By then, the engineer was already trying to slow the train because it was behind another train. Upon hearing the alarm, the engineer increased the application of the brakes, and then automatic emergency brakes initiated, bringing the train to a stop.

When it stopped, the crew “observed fire and smoke and notified the Cleveland East dispatcher of a possible derailment,” the report said.

Thirty-eight cars derailed and 12 more were damaged in the ensuing fire.

The hopper car with the overheating bearing was carrying plastic pellets, which caught fire when the axle overheated, Homendy said.

The placards that designate which cars are carrying hazardous materials — and which she said are "critical in response and in protecting the community," were also made of plastic and melted. NTSB may recommend a different material for the placards.

The focus of the investigation is on the wheelset and the bearings. They are also looking at the design of the tank cars themselves, the accident response, including the venting and burning of the vinyl chloride, railcar design and maintenance procedures and practices, Norfolk Southern’s use of wayside defect detectors, and Norfolk Southern’s railcar inspection practices.

NTSB plans to hold a rare investigative field hearing near the site in the spring with the goals of informing the public, collecting factual information from witnesses, discussing possible solutions and building consensus for change.