US Department of Justice sues Norfolk Southern over Ohio train derailment

The US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against freight train giant Norfolk Southern over its 3 February train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, CNN reported on Friday.

The lawsuit reportedly seeks damages for alleged Clean Water Act violations. The derailment of 38 cars including 11 carrying hazardous materials led to the release of over a million gallons of hazardous materials, Ohio’s attorney general has said.

Meanwhile, it emerged that a team of government officials became sick while investigating the health effects of the toxic train derailment, when they visited the Ohio site earlier this month, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told CNN.

The investigators experienced sore throats, headaches, coughing and nausea, the sort of symptoms that residents in the East Palestine area were experiencing after the derailment and the controlled burn of toxic chemicals that followed as authorities sought to stave off the risk of the train exploding.

Hazardous chemicals were released into the air, water and soil from the derailment and subsequent burn.

The CDC team of seven was going door-to-door in East Palestine and the wider area conducting a survey and reported their brief bouts of sickness to federal safety officers, CNN said.