Authorities were responding to a freight train derailment Thursday in southeast Michigan, the latest incident as communities in Arizona and Ohio grappled with the fallout from collisions involving hazardous materials.
Emergency crews were on the scene in Van Buren Township, where about 30 Norfolk Southern Railway train cars went off the tracks Thursday morning. The derailment prompted temporary road closures which were expected to reopen by the evening, the local public safety department said on Facebook.
The township is located about 30 miles west of downtown Detroit.
While an investigation into the derailment is ongoing, Van Buren Township Public Safety said there are no reports of injuries and no hazardous materials were aboard the overturned portion of the train.
“There is no evidence of exposed hazardous materials. There are also no reported injuries,” the Facebook post says.
Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, said on Twitter that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who responded to the derailment, found that the majority of derailed cars were empty and a rail car containing hazardous material was not derailed.
The derailed train cars were currently being placed back on the track, Dingell added.
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Derailment comes after Ohio incident
The derailment in Michigan comes about two weeks after a different Norfolk Southern train derailment involving hazardous materials near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border led to evacuations, as well as environmental and health concerns.
The rail operator has been under scrutiny for its response to the Ohio derailment. Several lawsuits have been filed against Norfolk Southern alleging negligence and residents exposed to the dangerous chemicals from the derailment have voiced safety concerns.
What did emergency responders find?
Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes (EGLE) sent responders to the scene and released updates on what they found.
- One of the overturned rail cars contained agricultural products, and the other cars were empty.
- No hazardous material was released into soil or waterways.
- One railcar contained liquid chlorine but was away from the overturned section and was included in the railcars that were removed first.
- Norfolk Southern is on-site using equipment to remove and upright the railcars.
Video from the scene of the derailment in Van Buren Township showed that numerous train cars from the Norfolk Southern train were off the tracks.
Norfolk Southern subject of public outrage
Norfolk Southern Corp., an Atlanta-based transportation company, has been under public scrutiny since its train derailed on Feb. 3 near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border and spilled toxic chemicals. The derailment caused evacuations and has left residents to worry about their air, soil, and water quality.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Norfolk Southern failed “to adhere to well-accepted standards of practice related to incident management” and prioritized an “accelerated” reopening of the rail line over safety.
In 2014, a derailment in Casselton, North Dakota, spilled nearly 500,000 gallons of crude oil and caused $13.5 million in damage that prompted the Obama administration to push for a new safety rule to govern the transportation of hazardous materials, avoid environmental disasters and save lives.
Industry lobbyists for Norfolk Southern fought against the effort to create the new safety rule, which was repealed in 2018 due to costs. Labor representatives and industry experts have said efforts to reduce costs for rail regulations have only made trains less safe.
Contributing: Tami Abdollah and Terry Collins, USA TODAY; Jennie Key and Victoria Moorwood, USA TODAY Network; The Associated Press