Norfolk Southern Railway Company Train Derailment and Hazardous Materials Release
NTSB/RAB-14/08
train derailed.
The NTSB determined that the probable cause of the accident was a broken rail
that showed evidence of rolling contact fatigue. The rail failure discovered in the Columbus,
Ohio, investigation had many similarities to the New Brighton, Pennsylvania, and Ellicott City,
Maryland, accidents in that rails with similar wear conditions failed because of detail fractures
from shelling caused by rolling contact fatigue.
In the case of the New Brighton derailment, postaccident testing revealed that the defect
had grown to 78 percent of the remaining rail head area; in the Columbus accident, the defect
had grown to 70 percent. By contrast, in the case of the Ellicott City accident, the defect
extended across just 24 percent of the remaining rail head area. These percentages indicate that
rail stress was most likely lower when the New Brighton and Columbus derailments occurred
than during the Ellicott City derailment.
Rail Safety Advisory Committee Rail Failure Working
Group
Recommendations
As a result of the NTSB safety recommendations from the New Brighton investigation
and the NTSB investigations into the Columbus and Ellicott City derailments, the FRA
determined that each of the accidents resulted from rail failures. In September 2012, the FRA
established a Rail Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) Rail Failure Working Group to study
the effects of rail head wear and the resulting rail surface conditions (known as rolling contact
fatigue), and how such rail conditions can adversely affect the results of ultrasonic rail testing.
(See appendix A.)
The RSAC Rail Failure Working Group met four times between January and July
2013. The group proposed new performance-based recommendations for determining rail wear
and internal rail inspection criteria. The new criteria, which establish best practices, have
improved the FRA’s ability to monitor rail integrity programs and should help to ensure that
track owners can quickly identify, as well as promptly and effectively remediate, problems with
rails that could lead to a derailment in populated areas or to track-related accidents involving
trains transporting passengers or hazmat. The FRA efforts and the industry’s acceptance of these
best practices should reduce the number of accidents caused by rail breaks due to rolling
contact fatigue and improve the operation of industry rail risk management programs.
On April 16, 2014, the RSAC adopted the recommendations from the Rail Failure
Working Group. The final recommendations, which were developed with industry consensus, are
provided in appendix B. On July 25, 2014, the FRA distributed the final Rail Failure Prevention
Program guidance document to the RSAC and the Rail Failure Working Group, and requested
that they distribute it throughout the railroad industry. The FRA also stated that the FRA
Administrator would formally issue the guidance document to railroads.
See National Transportation Safety Board, CSX Transportation Coal Train Derailment Killed Two
Individuals, Ellicott City, Maryland, August 20, 2012, NTSB/RAB-14/07 (Washington, DC: National Transportation
Safety Board, 2014).