20 cars of Norfolk Southern cargo train derail in Ohio, less than a month after East Palestine wreck
Train derails in Springfield, Ohio, tipping 20 cars on to tracks but no hazardous materials
For the second time in a month, a train has derailed in Ohio. Norfolk Southern Railway says there were 212 cars on that train, and 20 of them derailed in the town of Springfield, Ohio. That's about 235 miles from the derailment in East Palestine.
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - About 20 cars of a Norfolk Southern cargo train derailed near Springfield Saturday evening, the second derailment of the company's trains in Ohio in a month, officials said.
But unlike the Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, a company spokesperson said there were no hazardous materials aboard the train, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
The train, which did not have passengers, derailed around 5 p.m. Saturday by State Route 41, near the Clark County Fairgrounds, the Dispatch reported. Springfield is about 46 miles (74 km) west of the state capital of Columbus, Ohio.
The 20 cars of the 212-car train derailed while traveling south, the Norfolk Southern spokesperson said.
Shawn Heaton told the Springfield News-Sun that he was waiting at the intersection as the train crossed the intersection and captured the start of the derailment on video.
"I was right there and I was playing on my phone and then I heard a loud bang. And when I heard the loud bang, I started recording," Heaton said. "When I heard the bang, there was all kinds of debris and metal shoot out from under the cars and that's when I started recording and you could see them start jumping off the tracks."
East Palestine train derailment: Crew had little warning before Ohio wreck, probe finds
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made his first visit to the East Palestine, Ohio, crash site and took shots at former President Donald Trump, who had visited the day before and criticized the federal response to the train derailment.
The Clark County Emergency Management Agency has asked residents within 1,000 feet of the derailment to shelter in place, but the agency said it has not issued formal evacuation orders.
In an update at 8:50 p.m. EDT, the agency said officials are working to make sure that no hazardous materials were involved.
On Feb. 3, 38 cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train in East Palestine, in northeast Ohio near Pennsylvania, derailed and several of the train's cars carrying hazardous materials burned.
Though no one was injured, nearby neighborhoods in both states were imperiled. 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.