Toxic Rail Spill in Pennsylvania Caused By Excessive Speed

August 15, 2006 By: Marshall Cutchin

Norfolk Southern may be fined $35,000 a day for the poisoning of Pennsylvania’s Sinnemahoning-Portage Creek, after safety officials determined that the train which derailed was traveling at almost five times the speed limit in that area. “Cole Davis, a committee chairman with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said the train’s event recorder shows it was traveling 73 mph down what he described as a “treacherous hill” when it derailed.” Don Hopey in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
As we reported in July, 48,000 gallons of caustic soda were dumped into Portage Creek as a result of the derailment, causing a total loss of aquatic life in at least 10 miles of the stream.