Washington, February 23 The overheating of a “bearing”, a part used to reduce friction between the wheel and the axle, could be the main cause of the train accident which occurred in Ohio (USA) there at three weeks.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a preliminary report on Thursday into the derailment of the Norfolk Southern train, which was carrying toxic chemicals near the small eastern Palestinian township.
“Surveillance video from a local residence showed what appeared to be a wheel bearing in the final stages of overheating failure moments before the derailment,” the agency said in a statement.
The affected wheel bearing and axle, he added, have been collected as evidence and will be reviewed by the NTSB.
The train, of about fifty cars, carried toxic materials in eleven of them and derailed on February 3 while crossing East Palestine, a city of less than 5,000 inhabitants sixty kilometers from the industrial city of Pittsburgh and close to the border. with Pennsylvania.
According to the preliminary report released today, the train crew received an alert about overheating bearings and attempted to slow down before the train skidded.
Despite the alerts and speed reduction, the bearing continued to overheat to 253 degrees Fahrenheit (122 Celsius) at the time of the derailment.
Aunque East Palestine es pequeño y se encuentra en una bastante depopulated zona, el asunto está siendo utilizado por los republicanos para criticar al Gobierno federal por las consecuencias de lo ocurrido, weighs that the Administration of President Joe Biden insists that no hay peligro en The area.
Former President Donald Trump himself used the incident to campaign and visited the area affected by the toxic spill yesterday.
This Thursday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited the area amid growing criticism of the federal response to the derailment.
Faced with these criticisms, the US government announced last Friday that it would deploy a team of doctors and toxicologists to carry out public health tests in the affected area.
The team will help federal, state and local authorities already on the ground assess the health of people who have been exposed or potentially exposed to chemicals.
From the government, they continue to defend their actions and insist that the area is safe and the water is not contaminated, despite fears from neighbours.
Since the fires were extinguished Feb. 8, EPA air monitoring has detected no level of community health concern attributed to the train derailment.
Neither does water, because the EPA helps state and local agencies test surface and ground water to make sure drinking water is safe.