bruary 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, United States.[1] After the freight train burned for over two days, emergency crews conducted a controlled burn of several railcars at the request of state officials,[2] which released hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the air.[1] As a result, residents within a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) radius were evacuated, and an emergency response from agencies in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia was initiated. The federal government agreed to help. Background The derailed train was Norfolk Southern train 32N[3] operating from the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis yard in Madison, Illinois, to Norfolk Southern's Conway Yard in Conway, Pennsylvania, on the Fort Wayne Line. On board the 9,300 feet (1.76 mi; 2.8 km) long train[4] were an engineer, conductor and conductor trainee.[5] The train consisted of nine empty cars, and 141 loaded cars.[6] Of those cars, 20 were carrying hazardous materials, including chloroethene (vinyl chloride), butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate, ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, isobutylene, combustible liquids, and benzene residue.[7][8][9] The train departed Madison on February 1, and had suffered at least one mechanical failure before the derailment.[10] Brakes Main article: Electronically controlled pneumatic brakes In 2014, Congress passed the Rail Safety Improvement Act which required electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes for "high-hazard flammable" trains.[11] ECP brakes may potentially reduce stopping distances by up to 60 percent over conventional railway air brakes.[12] The derailed train was not equipped with ECP brakes, which former Federal Railroad Administration official Steven Ditmeyer said would have mitigated the severity of the accident. The 2014 legislation was weakened when, in 2017, railway industries successfully lobbied Congress with over $6 million to Republ
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