[In the player above, watch previously released footage of the East Palestine train as it passed by a Salem business before derailing on Feb. 3. Video is credited to Butech Bliss via Storyful.]
WASHINGTON (WJW) — On Thursday, federal transportation safety officials plan to go over the investigation into the Feb. 3 freight train derailment in East Palestine.
The National Transportation Safety Board plans to issue its preliminary report on the incident at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Later that afternoon, board Chair Jennifer Homendy and Robert Hall, director of the board’s office of railroad, pipeline and hazardous materials, plan to discuss “factual information from the investigation” and rail safety.
Thirty-eight train cars derailed just before 9 p.m. on Feb. 3, sparking a fire that damaged another dozen cars, according to the report. Eleven of those derailed cars were carrying hazardous material including vinyl chloride and three other chemicals that weren’t initially announced. Here’s a full list of what the train was carrying.
The board in a Feb. 14 update suggested it may have been caused by an overheating wheel bearing. The board cited surveillance footage taken from a nearby residence that appeared to show a bearing on the first car to derail was “in the final stage of overheat failure” moments before the derailment.
In surveillance footage taken about 45 minutes before the incident near the Salem business Butech Bliss, the undercarriage of the train can be seen glowing. Salem is about 20 miles northwest of East Palestine in Columbiana County.