East Palestine residents allege wrongful deaths from 2023 derailment

A new lawsuit filed by more than 700 residents of East Palestine, Ohio, makes the first wrongful-death allegations in connection with the 2023 derailment that spilled toxic chemicals in the village.

In the lawsuit, 744 current and former East Palestine residents make several allegations against Norfolk Southern, the railroad that operated the train, including civil conspiracy, negligence and nuisance. It also alleges seven people died “as a direct and proximate result of the incident and the negligence, recklessness, and other wrongful acts of the Defendant.”

The plaintiffs accuse Norfolk Southern of improperly cleaning up after the accident, also arguing that postcrash health and environmental monitoring was not adequate to catch lingering health problems among the residents. Although the lawsuit does not detail the circumstances of the alleged wrongful deaths, it lists health complaints among plaintiffs and their relatives including migraines, nosebleeds and memory issues.

The lawsuit casts the February 2023 crash as part of a pattern of safety failures, noting that in the 10 years before the crash, Norfolk Southern’s crash rate increased nearly 81 percent, including 38 incidents in Ohio in 2021.

“Norfolk Southern chose not to properly maintain its rail cars and allowed a train to proceed into the community with a car on fire. The defendants then failed to protect people when the rail car predictably derailed and blew up,” attorney Kristina S. Baehr said in a statement.

“Then they didn’t clearly warn families in the affected areas and let Norfolk Southern take the lead on the botched testing and cleanup. That was like allowing a criminal to collect DNA and fingerprints at his own crime scene.”

The announcement comes the same day Vice President Vance and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin are set to visit the village ahead of the third anniversary of the crash. Last week, East Palestine and Norfolk Southern reached a $22 million settlement over the crash. The Monday lawsuit is separate from both that settlement and a pending class action suit.

No one was directly killed by the crash, but it spilled several cars containing hazardous substances including vinyl chloride, used in plastics production. Local officials conducted a controlled burn, which they said was a precaution against an accidental explosion, but federal transportation officials later testified that this had been unnecessary.

The Hill has reached out to Norfolk Southern for comment.

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