Could a toxic derailment happen here?

Could a railroad derailment and toxic tragedy like the one in East Palestine, Ohio happen here?

Given regular hazardous materials shipments on rail lines through settled areas, it is a possibility.

And in 2021 Hanover Township officials received a glimpse of how quickly tragedy could strike.

On a bright summer evening a Norfolk Southern freight train made an emergency stop on the crossing at Fellows Avenue.

As amateur video and photos showed at the time, the trucks underneath one of the tank cars had come apart, sending the wheels and axles hurtling into the ballast next to the tracks and partially derailing the car.

Fate was on the township’s side.

Unlike this month’s massive Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine, the June 2021 incident involved an issue with one empty tank car: There was no release of chemicals, and no injuries.

Recalling the 2021 derailment in phone interviews on Wednesday, Township Manager Sam Guesto and Fire Chief Joe Temarantz both expressed relief.

“Thank God is right,” Guesto said.

“What happened out there (Ohio) could have happened here,” Temarantz said. “You are at the mercy of the train.”

The biggest headache proved to be traffic-related, as the disabled train was blocking the crossings at Fellows Avenue and Breaker Road, busy local thoroughfares that connect neighborhoods on the Susquehanna River side of the tracks with the Sans Souci Parkway.

But the potential for disaster was real.

As a Norfolk Southern spokesman confirmed at the time, the train was carrying a variety of cargo, including “loads properly labeled as hazardous materials, but they were not in the vicinity of the derailed car so there was no concern.”

Hazmat shipments common here

Hazardous materials are regularly shipped over the rail lines that run through the township and across Luzerne County, as Guesto and Temarantz noted.

“We know that everything and anything runs through our community,” the chief said.

In that respect, Luzerne County is hardly alone.

Hazardous materials shipments account for 7 to 8% of the roughly 30 million shipments railroads deliver across the U.S. each year, the Associated Press pointed out.

The Association of American Railroads trade group says 99.9% of those hazardous materials shipments reach their destinations safely, the AP notes — but even one derailment involving hazardous materials could be disastrous, especially if it happened in a populated area.

Like East Palestine, Ohio.

Or Hanover Township, Pa. — or any of the local communities up and down the Wyoming Valley that have busy rail lines threading through them, from Avoca in the north to Nescopeck and Hazleton in the south.

“It’s a major concern,” said Guesto, whose municipality lies at the heart of the county and the heart of the railroad lines that weave through it.

Hazmat training, preparedness

The important thing, Guesto and Temarantz and others say, is to be prepared for a potential disaster. In Hanover Township, the fire department and first responders take that possibility very seriously.

As Temarantz explained, members of the department undergo hazmat refresher courses every year, designed to acquaint them with chemicals that are carried on road and rail and used in industrial settings.

Those classes are offered twice a year at Bucks County Community College, and several members of the department’s own staff are qualified as hazmat instructors.

“It is a good refresher,” Temarantz said.

App for first responders

There’s another tool that he and Guesto said has proved its worth: The AskRail app.

Not available to the general public, the app provides information about the contents of freight trains, including whether they are carrying hazardous materials. It also includes emergency contact information for all Class I railroads, Amtrak, and available short lines.

Only qualified emergency responders who have completed rail emergency training sponsored by one of the Class I freight railroads (including Norfolk Southern) or at the rail industry’s Security and Emergency Response Training Center (SERTC) in Colorado can download and use the app’s restricted features. Users can enter a simple railcar ID search to see whether a given car on a train is carrying hazardous materials.

Temarantz said he uses the app to see what is passing through Hanover Township, and that it came in handy on the evening of the 2021 derailment.

While everyone was lucky that the incident was not worse, Temarantz also noted that the response was quick and efficient. A key reason, he suggested, was that the train crew was alerted to the issue by an automated defect detector along the line, in which sensors scan passing trains for axle problems.

Longer trains an issue?

As the Associated Press noted, the railroad industry has made a number of major operational changes and eliminated roughly one-third of its jobs over the past six years. Railroads now rely on fewer, longer trains, so they say they don’t need as many crews, mechanics and locomotives. Rail unions say the changes have made railroads riskier because workers are spread more thin, but the industry has defended its safety record, the AP added.

Such long trains may be irritating to motorists waiting at crossings, but they also pose challenges for local emergency responders in the event of an incident.

That’s why coordination between municipalities is vital, the chief continued, explaining the importance of mutual aid with surrounding communities, such as Wilkes-Barre, Plymouth and Nanticoke.

“We could have a train so long that the front is in Nanticoke but the end is still back here in Hanover Township,” Temarantz said.