A Norfolk Southern train conductor died after being hit by a dump truck Tuesday morning at an Ohio steel facility, the company said.
This is the most recent headline-grabbing incident involving the railroad. On February 3, a company train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio. Another trainer derailed earlier this month.
On Tuesday, Louis Shuster, 46, was at the Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. steel facility at about 1:30 a.m. when a truck carrying a load of limestone “collapsed the front left side of the first train car,” a Cleveland police spokesman said. Shuster was outside the train when he was struck and was later pronounced dead at the scene.
“We mourn the loss of a colleague today,” the railways said in a statement.
The company says it is investigating the incident with the Cleveland Police Department as well as the facility and has been in contact with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
The National Transportation Safety Board tweeted Tuesday that it is investigating the conductor’s death.
The incident comes just three days after 28 Norfolk Southern train cars derailed in Springfield, Ohio, according to officials.
There were no hazardous materials on board the train from Bellevue, Ohio to Birmingham, Alabama.
On February 3, a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine in northeast Ohio near Pennsylvania, and several cars carrying hazardous materials burned.
The accident prompted the evacuation of nearly half the city’s approximately 5,000 residents, prompting an ongoing multi-agency emergency response and heightened concerns about long-term health effects.
