Residents in East Palestine, Ohio, filed a class-action lawsuit against Norfolk Southern, in the latest legal action against the rail freight carrier following a Feb. 3 train derailment and fire that led to toxic chemicals being released into the environment.
At least six other lawsuits reportedly have been filed against Norfolk Southern following the disaster, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday ordered Norfolk Southern "to conduct and pay for all cleanup actions associated with the derailment."
The latest complaint was filed Thursday by Youngstown, Ohio, law firm Johnson & Johnson and Hagens Berman, a national firm that specializes in class-action suits that was behind the $260 billion multistate settlement, including Ohio, with the tobacco industry in 1998, the largest civil settlement in the nation's history.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive damages for businesses and residents located within a 30-mile radius from the crash site. It also seeks injunctive and equitable relief in regards to safety and compliance oversight, and asks for Norfolk to create and finance a fund for medical monitoring.
The 149-car freight train derailed as the result of an overheated axle on car No. 23. According to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board, an alarm sounded regarding the axel, and the train engineer applied breaks to slow and stop the train, but not in time to stop the derailment.
But the lawsuit claims even though a wheel bearing overheated, causing the train to catch fire, "the train nevertheless continued to travel ablaze through Salem, Ohio [approximately 20 miles west of the derailment site] toward East Palestine." The lawsuit claimed Norfolk Southern did not report the wreck to federal authorities until approximately two hours after the derailment.
In an email to Newsmax, a Norfolk Southern spokesperson said "we're unable to comment on pending litigation" and said a comprehensive overview of its community outreach efforts and environmental remediation efforts could be found at NSMakingItRight.com.
As the train wreckage burned, the temperature of five cars carrying toxic vinyl chloride rose, risking an explosion and forcing an evacuation of the area. The lawsuit claims although "all the cars were equipped with emergency relief valves designed to vent their contents to relieve pressure in such emergencies, the valves malfunctioned as a result of poor maintenance."
To minimize the risk of explosion, the vinyl chloride was emptied into dug ditches so a controlled burn could be executed. The lawsuit stated the problem is when burned, vinyl chloride, which is used to make plastic products, can become hydrogen chloride and phosgene gas, the latter of which was used as a chemical weapon during World War I.
"Norfolk Southern's misguided cleanup effort unleashed a chemical warfare agent on the residents of East Palestine," Nils Johnson, Jr. of Johnson & Johnson, an attorney serving as co-counsel, said in a statement. "The company's negligence didn't just lead to this tragic disaster, it amplified the fallout considerably, and Norfolk Southern's delayed response and eventual actions only added fuel to this fire."
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