Norfolk Southern train derails in Pennsylvania

[March 04, 2024]  (Reuters) - A Norfolk Southern train derailed on Saturday, spilling diesel fuel and polypropylene plastic pellets into the Lehigh River in eastern Pennsylvania, police said.

There were no reports of injuries to the crew on the train or evacuations or a hazardous material threat to the community, the Lower Saucon Township Police Department said in a statement.   

A Norfolk Southern train rests near the University of North Carolina's energy generation plant after it delivered coal to the facility in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S., August 11, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake/File Photo

Emergency personnel were dispatched and containment booms were deployed to control the oil spill, it added.

Norfolk Southern, in a post on social media platform X, said it would investigate the accident, adding that their crew and contractors would remain on the scene over the coming days to clean up.

Ancora Holdings, which holds a large equity stake in the company, called for the immediate termination of Norfolk Southern Chief Executive Officer Alan Shaw and urged an orderly reconstitution of the board, that company said in a statement following the derailment.

Early last year, a Norfolk Southern Railroad-operated train derailed, causing a fire that sent a cloud of smoke over the town of East Palestine, Ohio, and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate.

President Joe Biden visited the area last month and called the train derailment "an act of greed." He urged Congress to pass a bipartisan bill to toughen rail safety laws.

(Reporting by Devika Nair and Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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