On the afternoon of November 22, 2023, at approximately 2:23 PM ET, a CSX mixed freight train derailed in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, causing a major spill of molten sulfur chemicals near Roundstone Creek, a creek located northwest of Livingston. Only one member of the CSX train's two-person crew was treated at the scene for minor injuries. The incident occurred six days after a similar CSX derailment that happened in Atlanta, Georgia.
The derailment occurred in the backdrop of an "alarming" number of derailments in 2023 in the United States. [1]
Shortly after the derailment, the town of Livingston was evacuated. The governor of Kentucky declared a state of emergency in the entire surroundings of Rockcastle County in connection of the derailment and the chemicals, but was lifted several hours later. [2] [3]
A total of 15 out of the 40 cars of the train derailed, and at least only two were breached. The train spilled burning molten sulfur chemicals that created a large plumes of smoke. The derailment occurred near both Roundstone Creek and Ten Foot Hole Road, which is part of the Roundstone watershed. [4] [5] The chemicals released were suspected to include sulfur dioxide, which is harmful in high concentrations and as a background pollutant. [6]
In reaction to the derailment, the Chinese government launched a disinformation campaign on social media alleging a cover-up. [7]
Livingston is a home rule-class city in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 226 during the 2010 U.S. census. It is part of the Richmond-Berea micropolitan area.
East Palestine is a village in northeastern Columbiana County, Ohio, United States. The population was 4,761 at the 2020 census. Located on the state's border with Pennsylvania, East Palestine is about 20 miles (32 km) south of Youngstown and 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Pittsburgh. It is part of the Salem micropolitan area.
CSX Transportation, known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles (34,000 km) of track, it is the leading subsidiary of CSX Corporation, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The company operates 19,420 route miles (31,250 km) in 22 eastern states, the District of Columbia, and has rights in Canada over the Albany to Montreal route of the Canadian Pacific Kansas City. Norfolk Southern Railway is the leading subsidiary of the Norfolk Southern Corporation.
The Graniteville train crash was an American rail disaster that occurred on January 6, 2005, in Graniteville, South Carolina. At roughly 2:40 am EST, two Norfolk Southern trains collided near the Avondale Mills plant in Graniteville. Nine people were killed and over 250 people were treated for toxic chlorine exposure. The crash was determined to be caused by a misaligned railroad switch.
Montana Rail Link was a privately held Class II railroad in the United States. It operated on trackage originally built by the Northern Pacific Railway and leased from its successor BNSF Railway. MRL was a unit of The Washington Companies and was headquartered in Missoula, Montana.
The Mississauga train derailment, also known as the Mississauga Miracle, occurred on November 10, 1979, in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, when a CP Rail freight train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and caught fire. More than 200,000 people were evacuated in the largest peacetime evacuation in North America until Hurricane Katrina. The fire was caused by a failure of the lubricating system. No deaths resulted from the incident.
The Brooks derailment was a rail accident that occurred in Brooks, Bullitt County, Kentucky, United States, about 15 miles south of Louisville.
The CSX 8888 incident, also known as the Crazy Eights incident, was a runaway train event involving a CSX Transportation freight train in the U.S. state of Ohio on May 15, 2001. Locomotive #8888, an EMD SD40-2, was pulling a train of 47 cars, including some loaded with hazardous chemicals, and ran uncontrolled for just under two hours at up to 51 miles per hour (82 km/h). It was finally halted by a railroad crew in a second locomotive, which caught up with the runaway train and coupled their locomotive to the rear car.
Penns Grove Secondary is a rail freight line in the Delaware Valley in the southwestern part of New Jersey. Part of Conrail's South Jersey/Philadelphia Shared Assets it runs for approximately 20 miles (32 km) between its southern terminus at Penns Grove and Woodbury at the north where it joins the Vineland Secondary about 8.5 miles (13.7 km) south of Pavonia Yard in Camden. At its southern end the Deepwater Point Running Track continues another 3.7 miles (6 km) through Carneys Point to Deepwater.
The 2015 Mount Carbon train derailment refers to a derailment in Mount Carbon, West Virginia, on February 16, 2015, which involved a CSX Transportation train hauling 107 tank cars of crude oil from North Dakota to Virginia. It resulted in a large oil spill that caught fire with several subsequent large, violent fireball eruptions. The spill, fire, and eruptions destroyed one home, forced the evacuation of hundreds of families and caused the temporary shut down of two nearby water treatment plants. Eventually, 19 railcars carrying crude oil caught fire with each car carrying up to 30,000 US gallons of crude oil.
The 2015 Tennessee train derailment occurred on July 2, 2015. A CSX Transportation train derailed at Maryville, Tennessee. The train was carrying toxic chemicals, leading to an evacuation of over 5,000 people.
A train derailment occurred on February 3, 2023, at 8:55 p.m. EST (UTC−5), when 38 cars of a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, United States. Several railcars burned for more than two days, with emergency crews then conducting a controlled burn of several railcars, which released hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the air. As a result, residents within a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) radius were evacuated, and an emergency response was initiated from agencies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia.
On November 30, 2012, a daily freight train running on Conrail Shared Assets Operations Penns Grove Secondary derailed in Paulsboro, a borough with an industrial and maritime economy, in Gloucester County, New Jersey. As a result, vinyl chloride from one car leaked into the air. In 2023 several news reports drew parallels between this derailment and the 2023 Ohio train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which also involved release of vinyl chloride.
At 4:25 pm on July 8, 1986, a 44 car Baltimore and Ohio railroad freight train, traveling at 45 miles per hour, bound south to Cincinnati, derailed near Miamisburg, Ohio, a small city with an industrial history in Montgomery County, southwest of Dayton. Fifteen of the cars derailed on a bridge; these were tank cars containing yellow phosphorus, molten sulfur and tallow. Carrying a chemical used to make rat poison, fireworks and luminescent coatings, one tank car caught fire. This resulted in emission of an estimated 1,000 foot (300 m) high cloud of phosphorus. A subsequent incident caused the largest train accident-triggered evacuation at the time in the United States. The accident was the second major rail disaster in Miamisburg within an eight-year period. On September 10, 1978, 15 cars of a Conrail train derailed.
The Yellowstone River bridge collapse was a train derailment that occurred on June 24, 2023, near Columbus, Montana, United States. A bridge that crosses the Yellowstone River collapsed, causing several cars of a freight train carrying hazardous materials to fall into the water below. The incident resulted in environmental concerns and internet service disruptions in the state.