Norfolk Southern seeks $600 million from GATX and OxyVinyls after derailment
- Norfolk Southern filed a motion for a trial slated to begin to determine financial responsibility for damages due to a derailment.
- The company claims GATX owned the railcar that caused the incident, while OxyVinyls allegedly provided misleading information about the chemicals involved.
- The outcome will clarify which of the companies will contribute to the $600 million class-action settlement.
In the United States, specifically near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border, a significant train derailment occurred on February 3, 2023. The incident involved a Norfolk Southern train that caused extensive damage and the release of toxic chemicals, notably vinyl chloride. The derailment resulted in a class-action settlement of $600 million, which Norfolk Southern is now seeking to share with two other companies, GATX and OxyVinyls, arguing they bear partial responsibility for the incident. The railcar owned by GATX was identified as the cause of the derailment due to an overheating bearing that led to the fire, facilitating the subsequent spill of hazardous materials. Norfolk Southern has filed a motion that will lead to a trial to determine the financial sharing of the settlement costs. The trial is set to last two to three weeks and will only affect which of the companies is responsible for paying the settlement, not the amounts residents or other entities will ultimately receive. It has been pointed out that while residents have begun receiving some payments from the settlement, pending appeals have delayed the full disbursal of funds. This legal case comes on the heels of Norfolk Southern's previous efforts, where they lost a lawsuit aimed at getting GATX and OxyVinyls to share the costs of environmental cleanup associated with the derailment. The railroad asserts that it has borne the entire burden of costs connected to the disastrous event, which has exceeded $1 billion. Norfolk Southern maintains there is sufficient evidence to support their claim that other parties contributed to the mishap. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the crash was precipitated by the failure of an overheating bearing on the GATX railcar, indicating a critical failure in transportation safety protocols. This incident has raised urgent discussions about rail safety and led to proposed reforms in the U.S. Congress, although those proposals have since stalled without any legislative progress.