Robert Brown|Norfolk Southern to let workers use anonymous federal safety hotline one year after derailment

Norfolk Southern,Robert Brown the railroad behind a derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, a year ago, will be the first of its kind to join a federal program in which employees can anonymously report near-miss accidents.

The Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS), which is currently voluntary, is overseen by NASA and modeled after a similar program used by airlines. It is designed to analyze reports of near-miss events and pool knowledge to devise ways to avoid dangerous accidents in the future, according to the program's website.

Norfolk Southern will be the first of the nation's largest freight railroads to participate in the program, which will be piloted in Atlanta; Elkhart, Indiana; and Roanoke, Virginia. Around 1,000 workers in those cities will be able to confidentially report close-call incidents.

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Every other Class I railroad has pledged to join but has yet to do so, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“Norfolk Southern has taken a good first step, and it’s time for the other Class I railroads to back up their talk with action and make good on their promises to join this close call reporting system and keep America’s rail network safe," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in the release.

Norfolk Southern's decision to join C3RS comes just days before the one-year anniversary of the East Palestine train derailment.

The derailment, which received national attention, occurred the night of Feb. 3, 2023, when multiple rail cars of an eastbound Norfolk Southern freight train came off the tracks near the town of less than 5,000 residents. At least five different chemicals were carried in rail cars that derailed, according to a letter from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Norfolk Southern.

The chemicals included butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, isobutylene and vinyl chloride, which is a chemical used to make PVC pipe and is considered a carcinogen. Exposure to vinyl chloride is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer as well as brain and lung cancers.

Burning vinyl chloride — which was part of a controlled release plan used by state and local officials to avoid an explosion that could have sent shrapnel from the metal tank cars hurtling into buildings — creates the toxic gas phosgene and hydrogen chloride. The gases were used as weapons during World War I.

Norfolk Southern's decision to join the reporting system followed calls by Buttigieg and union leaders in the wake of the derailment.

“NS is proud to partner with our labor leaders and FRA to make another industry-leading advancement in safety,” Alan H. Shaw, Norfolk Southern president and CEO, said in a prepared statement. “We are committed to setting the gold standard for rail safety, and we are proud to be the first Class I railroad to deliver on our promise to co-develop and launch a C3RS program.”

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Norfolk Southern joins C3RS even as Ian Jefferies, the president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Railroads, expressed concerns about the system in a March 2 letter to Buttigieg.

In the letter, Jefferies told the transportation secretary that the seven Class I railroads planned to join the close-call system. But before joining, he told Buttigieg there were several problems the railroads wanted addressed, including the speed and quality in reporting near-miss incidents, concerns about whether the information would actually be kept confidential, and the sharing of information collected industry-wide to improve safety in a timely manner.

Jeffries also wrote that he feared some employees would misuse the system in an attempt to remain anonymous while reporting their own repeated misconduct. The program should allow railroads to address misconduct with specific employees if it arises repeatedly, Jefferies wrote.

Chris Hand, head of research for the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, praised Norfolk Southern for joining the reporting system in some capacity. But he criticized the railroads' reluctance to join as "a resistance to cultural change."

Hand, who also sits on the federal Railroad Safety Advisory Committee, worries that railroads won't fully join C3RS unless they are able to see the names of employees reporting problems. Allowing that change would mean abandoning confidentiality and could undermine the reporting system in the first place, Hand said.

"Why did they commit and here we are a year later with nothing?" he said. "Unfortunately, retaliation is a big fear for railroaders, and the industry is missing avoidable safety hazards without the program."

Max Filby is a reporter at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at [email protected] or on X @MaxFilby.