Jury: NS Should Pay $600M     04/24 06:19

   The company that owned the railcar that caused the devastating East 
Palestine train derailment in 2023 won't have to help pay for the $600 million 
settlement Norfolk Southern agreed to with residents.

   (AP) -- The company that owned the railcar that caused the devastating East 
Palestine train derailment in 2023 won't have to help pay for the $600 million 
settlement Norfolk Southern agreed to with residents.

   An Ohio jury decided Wednesday that GATX isn't liable for the settlement 
even though the failure of a bearing on its railcar carrying plastic pellets 
caused the pileup on Feb. 3, 2023. GATX has maintained Norfolk Southern 
operated and inspected the train and all the cars and was responsible for 
delivering the cargo safely.

   "GATX is pleased with the trial outcome, which affirms what we have known 
for some time: Norfolk Southern alone is responsible for the derailment and 
resulting damage in East Palestine," the company said in a statement.

   Norfolk Southern called the verdict disappointing but said it won't affect 
the railroad's commitments to everyone affected by the derailment.

   "For more than two years, Norfolk Southern has paid the costs related to the 
derailment while acknowledging and acting on our own responsibility for the 
accident. Our belief has always been that GATX shares in that responsibility 
and should also be held to account," the railroad said in a statement.

   After the train derailed in East Palestine, an assortment of chemicals 
spilled and caught fire. Then three days later, officials blew open five tank 
cars filled with vinyl chloride because they feared those cars might explode, 
generating a massive black plume of smoke that spread over the area and forcing 
evacuations.

   Norfolk Southern lost a similar lawsuit last year when it tried to force 
GATX and OxyVinyls, which made the vinyl chloride, to help pay for the 
environmental cleanup after the derailment that has cost the Atlanta-based 
railroad more than $1 billion. It made similar arguments in this trial.

   These lawsuits have no effect on how much money residents or the village of 
East Palestine will receive from their settlements with the railroad. This 
cases only affect which company writes the check.

   Last week, OxyVinyls agreed to a settlement with Norfolk Southern in this 
lawsuit over the class-action settlement after the railroad's lawyers raised 
questions about the inconsistent information the chemical company provided 
about whether it was necessary to perform the vent-and-burn operation and 
release the vinyl chloride. The details of that settlement weren't released.

   The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed in its investigation that 
the vent-and-burn operation was unnecessary because the tank cars were starting 
to cool off and the railroad failed to listen to the advice from OxyVinyls' 
experts or share their opinions with the officials who made the decision.

   The railroad said GATX should have done more to take care of its railcar, 
particularly after it was surrounded by floodwaters, which could have damaged 
its bearings.

   But GATX said it complied with all the relevant regulations for taking care 
of its railcars. The company said that even if the car was damaged six years 
earlier by standing parked in the middle of floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey, 
the railroad should have spotted the problem and repaired it, sending GATX the 
bill for the repairs.

   The National Transportation Safety Board said the crash was caused by the 
failure of an overheating bearing on GATX's railcar. The railroad's sensors 
spotted the bearing starting to heat up in the miles before the derailment, but 
it didn't reach a critical temperature and trigger an alarm until just before 
the derailment. That left the crew little time to stop the train.