State route damaged by Springfield train derailment reopens

“We ask all drivers to proceed slowly and with caution through the area as cleanup of the derailed cars will remain active over the next few weeks,” a Clark County press release said.

The investigation into the incident remains ongoing, and Norfolk Southern officials have said it will take six to nine months to complete.

The Clark County Emergency Management Agency is working on cost recovery for the agencies and organizations affected by the incident, the release said.

EARLIER: The section of State Route 41 closed by Saturday’s Norfolk Southern train derailment by the Clark County Fairgrounds could open today after an inspection of repairs to the pavement at the railroad crossing, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Multiple agencies, such as ODOT and the Ohio State Highway Patrol, will oversee an inspection of the area this morning, according to an ODOT spokesperson.

Road crews continued working on pavement repair between Interstate 70 and Gateway Boulevard through Tuesday afternoon. Work was expected to wrap up Tuesday evening into this morning.

In the Springfield derailment, 28 cars of a 212-car Norfolk Southern freight train that stretched 2.55 miles overturned. None of the derailed cars contained hazardous materials, according to the Clark County Combined Health District.

Norfolk Southern electricians were working alongside ODOT road crews to repair the railroad crossing sign at the impacted intersection near Springfield’s industrial park. Electric work was expected to be completed Tuesday afternoon.

Not even two full days after Saturday’s derailment, Norfolk Southern trains were again traveling down the railway.

The final derailed car was cleared from the tracks on Sunday afternoon, with workers continuing repairs to the tracks late into the night.

Crews continued to clean debris and damaged freight from the derailed cars Tuesday. Some Ford F-150s transported in a car that derailed were removed.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, the agency in charge of overseeing investigations of transportation accidents, arrived on the scene Monday.

Investigators have access to a wide variety of information, from electronic monitoring information to simply looking at how the cars fall when they derail, said Michael Gorman, University of Dayton professor of Business Analytics and Operations Management.

“Just like a blood spatter report at a crime scene, to get a sense for what happened,” he said. “It’s forensic work that you need to be on site for, with lots of experience.”

A full National Transportation Safety Board investigation takes about a year, but preliminary reports are typically available in two to three weeks, according to the agency. With minor crashes, the cause can typically be determined within that two- to three-week time period, Gorman said.

Two passersby caught video of the moment the train derailed in Springfield from different angles, one on a dash cam, and the other on a phone video. Each were from opposite sides of the track as the train came off the tracks.

Just prior to the derailment, one of the cars appears to wobble on the tracks, before popping off and bringing attached cars with it, Gorman observed from the dash-cam video. While the footage is incredibly useful to investigators, it alone is not enough to determine the true cause of the crash, he said.

The National Transporation Safety Board confirmed that it is investigating a train collision in Cleveland on Tuesday that resulted in the fatality of a Norfolk Southern employee. This is the third incident involving a Norfolk Southern train in Ohio since the beginning of February.

Saturday’s derailment in Springfield came a month after the derailment in the village of East Palestine just south of Youngstown.