Norfolk Southern Argued Against "Emotional Evocations of 'Deadly Chemicals'" After 2005 Derailment

[GGoss]

Norfolk Southern Argued Against “Emotional Evocations of ‘Deadly Chemicals’” After 2005 Derailment - TheWire

More than a decade before the train derailment that triggered a series of events sending a mushroom cloud of carcinogenic vinyl chloride burnoff over East Palestine, Ohio, the same rail company, Norfolk Southern, fought responsibility for another large-scale accident in Graniteville, South Carolina.

The Graniteville crash released chlorine gas stored in derailed train cars, resulting in the deaths of nine people and hospital admissions for over 500. The crash, caused by two trains colliding from an improperly aligned railroad switch, released 90 tons of chlorine gas. The accident, the largest rail disaster of its type since 1978, resembled a chemical weapons attack. Many of the casualties were local textile workers who were killed by asphyxia from inhaling the gas, which hovered over a nearby plant owned by Avondale Mills.

In a court filing attached to a class-action lawsuit brought against Norfolk Southern in the wake of the 2005 crash, attorneys for the defense wrote “Plaintiffs emotional evocations of ‘deadly chemicals,’ ‘mangled metal,’ or ‘deadly liquid chlorine’ forming a gas that ‘crept through Graniteville’ and ‘killed those who could not outrun it’ can have no use other than to divert this court from the issue at hand – whether certain of plaintiffs claims are preempted by federal law.”

Norfolk Southern estimated the cost of the 2005 derailment at $41 million, noting the marginal stock impact of the crash was just 5 cents a share. Ultimately, it paid out $4 million in fines to the federal government and more than $10 million in settlements.

After the case...

[Walleye]

1. I get it, they hide behind the laws they helped write

This is the kind of shit that happens when industries and corporations, by means of lobbying, write the actual legislation

[Duncanpup]

2. Truth