Eight residents of East Palestine, Ohio, have filed a lawsuit accusing the Norfolk Southern railroad company of “compounding” the harm done after the February 3, 2023 derailment that devastated their community.
The railroad company’s decision to vent and burn multiple tank cars of vinyl chloride after the derailment is the reason for the lawsuit, the Marietta Times reported on Friday.
When the initial derailment happened, thousands of people living in the area were forced to evacuate after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed, per Breitbart News.
“Three days later, officials announced a ‘controlled release’ of the toxic chemicals, citing the risk of a ‘catastrophic explosion’ if they failed to take action. Residents were ordered to evacuate as the rail cars burned for hours on end,” the article read.
The Times report continued:
On Wednesday, a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois was transferred to Ohio’s Northeast Court in Youngstown. It accuses Norfolk Southern of “compounding the derailment’s harm” and “causing widespread contamination” when it chose to “intentionally blow holes in each of the derailed cars containing vinyl chloride to drain the chemical into a trench where flares would then ignite and burn the vinyl chloride away.”
The lawsuit, filed by eight residents who opted out of last year’s $600 million class action settlement with Norfolk Southern, maintains the railroad “failed to investigate possible alternatives to the controlled burn, instead choosing to pursue the course that would allow the railroad to reopen as quickly as possible, regardless of the consequences to plaintiffs and the East Palestine community.”
Neighbors were deeply shaken by the derailment and the aftermath. During an interview with Breitbart News days after the incident, one woman asked Americans to “pray for us” amid fears surrounding the hazardous chemicals and possible explosion.
Pete Buttigieg, who was the transportation secretary at the time under former President Joe Biden (D), said he was “concerned” about the impacts of the derailment. Biden was heavily criticized for holding off on visiting East Palestine for over a year, Breitbart News reported in February 2024.
President Donald Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, recently visited East Palestine on the two year anniversary of the toxic train derailment, per Breitbart News.
He said one reason he wanted to return to the area was to “signal to the people here in East Palestine that we will not forget you. I talked to the President about this visit a couple of days ago. The President loves this community, of course, he visited himself personally.”
“President Trump just wanted to deliver a message that this community will not be forgotten, will not be left behind,” Vance stated.
