Norfolk Southern Builds on Efforts to Train, Equip First Responders Following Train Derailment
From left to right: Ohio State Rep. Monica Robb Blasdel, East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway, Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan Shaw, East Palestine Fire Chief Keith Drabick, Ohio State Sen. Mike Rulli, and Norfolk Southern VP of Safety John Fleps. / Image courtesy of Norfolk Southern
By Tammy Leytham
Norfolk Southern Corp. broke ground in late September on its First Responder Training Center in East Palestine, Ohio, the site of a massive train derailment in February 2023.
The center will provide ongoing, free training for first responders from Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and the greater region. Norfolk Southern will invest at least $20 million in the center over the next 10 years through a partnership with the Village of East Palestine at no cost to the village or taxpayers.
The center is temporarily operating out of Norfolk Southern’s rail yard in Bellevue, Ohio, where more than 400 local emergency personnel received training this year.
This center will strengthen coordination between railroads and first responders, building on the company’s Operation Awareness and Response (OAR) program, which trains 5,000 first responders annually across its 22-state footprint.
“First responders are heroes, and we aim to ensure they have the training and expertise to do their jobs safely, no matter the situation,” said Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan H. Shaw in a company press release. “We are grateful to East Palestine’s leaders for partnering with us to make this training center a reality.”
The new center offers traditional fire service training to all first responders and specialized training for responding to rail and other transportation-related emergencies.
“This training center, and our previously expanded Operation Awareness and Response program, will provide first responders across the region with essential training on how to respond to unlikely rail incidents,” said Norfolk Southern Vice President of Safety John Fleps. “We’re excited to get the training center up and running to bring more capacity for first responder training to all types of incidents, while strengthening the network of professionals specially trained to respond to rail incidents.”
This investment works in tandem with a $500,000 economic development grant Norfolk Southern awarded East Palestine, a community of about 5,000 people near the Pennsylvania state line.
To date, Norfolk Southern has committed $95 million to East Palestine and surrounding communities. The company estimates response to the derailment will cost at least $803 million to remove all hazardous chemicals, help the community, and deal with lawsuits and penalties related to the derailment, according to the Associated Press.
A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board found that a wheel bearing failed moments before 38 cars derailed, releasing toxic chemicals into the air and water.
More than 60 other high-profile derailments occurred in the six months after the East Palestine derailment, according to the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO. Rail labor unions continue to urge comprehensive railway safety reform in the wake of the derailments.
When a rail incident occurs, seconds count.
So in addition to building the first responder training center, Norfolk Southern Corp. has partnered with RapidSOS to equip first responders with information critical to safely responding to a rail emergency. This partnership will make it quicker and easier to access cargo and hazardous materials information, enable the ability to call for mutual aid, and provide ongoing training.
“Through our partnership with RapidSOS, 911 call centers and first responder agencies throughout our 22-state network will have faster access to the information they need to safeguard their response, save lives and protect the communities in which we operate,” Fleps said.
The RapidSOS platform links more than 500 million devices, apps, and sensors to more than 15,000 911 and field responder agencies. Through the network, critical information can be provided to first responders, including:
Train cargo contents with details by train car
Hazardous materials information and emergency response standards and best practices
Ability to digitally escalate for mutual aid to surrounding agencies
Online learning, support, and training at no cost to first responders
Prior to the partnership, emergency dispatchers had to manually search online databases and verbally relay critical information to field responders.
The enhanced data from Norfolk Southern will be available to 911 centers and field responders nationwide in early 2024.