WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed near New Castle, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday night received an alarm several miles before the incident, according to preliminary findings released Friday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The derailment of nine train cars was about 20 miles (32 km)from the site of a Feb. 3 incident in East Palestine, Ohio, Norfolk Southern-operated in which cars carrying toxic vinyl chloride and other hazardous chemicals spilled and caught fire.
The railroad said Thursday there were no reported injuries or hazardous material concerns in the Pennsylvania derailment. The NTSB said preliminary information indicates the train received an alarm “from a wayside defect detector, or hot bearing detector, several miles before the train derailed.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis)