LOWER SAUCON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a derailment involving three Norfolk Southern trains that occurred today (Saturday, March 2) near Allentown, Pa., the safety agency said on social media site X. The incident sent two locomotives partially into the adjacent Lehigh River; NS reported diesel fuel and a small amount of plastic pellets from a single railcar also entered the river.
The Allentown Morning Call reports the incident occurred about 7:15 a.m. and that just one of the three trains involved derailed. The NTSB said that preliminary information indicates that an eastbound NS train struck a stopped train; wreckage from the moving train fouled an adjacent track and was struck by a westbound train. There was no immediate information on the number of cars derailed. No injuries were reported; crew members were stranded on the riverbank needed assistance from first responders to climb to a roadway.
The New York Times reports that Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure reported that some of the derailed cars were marked as carrying hazardous materials, but those cars were empty, and that the derailment posed no risk to the public.
Norfolk Southern said it was would assist the NTSB in its investigation of the accident.
Ancora Holdings, the activist investor seeking to replace Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw, released a statement a few hours after the derailment calling for the “immediate termination” of Shaw and saying it stands read “to engage with the company about an orderly reconstitution of the Board and a transition to capable management with a track record of actually delivering on safety commitments,” and that images from the derailment “underscore the urgent need to replace the company’s failed executive leadership and provide the railroad the fresh start it so desperately needs.”
