Second train to derail in Ohio poses no public risk, company says
Part of a cargo train has derailed in the US, making it the second derailment in Ohio in a month and sparking concern among residents.
Authorities said there is no indication of any risk to public health from the derailment of a Norfolk Southern cargo train between Dayton and Columbus.
The train company and Clark County officials say 28 of the southbound train’s 212 cars - including four empty tankers - derailed on Saturday in Springfield Township near a business park and the county fairgrounds.
Springfield is about 46 miles (74 kilometres) west of the state capital of Columbus.
As a precaution, residents living within 1,000 feet were asked to shelter in place and responding firefighters deployed the county hazmat team as a precaution.
But officials said on early Sunday there was "no indication of any injuries or risk to public health at this time.”
A crew from Norfolk Southern, the hazmat team and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency “each independently examined the crash site and verified there was no evidence of spillage at the site,” officials said.
Officials confirmed on Sunday afternoon that no hazardous materials were involved in the derailment.
It comes less than a month after a 50-carriage train carrying chemicals derailed on the outskirts of the village of East Palestine, in northeast Ohio near Pennsylvania.
38 cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed and several of the train’s cars carrying hazardous materials burned.
Though no one was injured, nearby neighbourhoods in both states were imperilled.
Fears of an explosion meant the resulting chemical spill and derailed carriages were burnt several days later by the train company who said it was safer to do so.
The controlled fire left a black mushroom cloud hanging over the area, causing further alarm among residents in East Palestine.
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.