Tuesday, March 05, 2024

Communities severed by roads and traffic experience a larger number of collisions in New York City

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

March 4, 2024- New York City neighborhoods with disrupted community connections, due to traffic, roads, and transport infrastructure, are experiencing an increase in traffic collisions. This increase is seen both in total collisions and for those in which pedestrians or cyclists are injured or killed, according to a new study from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The findings are reported in the journal Environment International.

“Despite recent remarkable progress, road safety remains an urgent urban issue in New York and other U.S. cities. It is important to understand how the spatial configuration of the city enhances these road safety issues,” said Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, ScD, associate professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health and senior author. “We wanted to investigate how the presence of road traffic and roads influence our health, beyond more commonly studied exposures such as air pollution and noise. Hopefully, our findings can help the design of a less deadly and a healthier city.”

In the United States, roadway fatalities declined from 1980 to 2010, followed by a plateau in the 2010s but increased again in 2020 and 2021. The authors developed the first index of community severance (Community Severance Index) to characterize the role of roads, traffic, and lack of pedestrian infrastructure in the disconnection of communities. The authors then examined the impact of community severance on road collisions, both in general and specifically pedestrians and cyclists.

The researchers used road traffic collisions for 2019, to estimate the association between census block group-level Community Severance Index and annual traffic collisions. NYC-Open Data provided detailed information on the date and location of road traffic collisions. The authors used three main categories of spatial data to develop the Community Severance Index for every census block group in NYC: road infrastructure, road traffic activity and pedestrian infrastructure.

The spatial data to generate the index were obtained through the smart location database from EPA and other providers such as road infrastructure data from OpenStreetmap and road traffic intensity from the U.S. Department of Transportation. They used an artificial intelligence algorithm to identify patterns in the data, identifying many severed communities in the city, with a high presence of roads and traffic, to the detriment of spaces for pedestrians. “We hypothesized that this novel index of community severance would be higher in areas prone to traffic collisions and investigated the relationship between the two,” said Jaime Benavides, an associate research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, who led the study.

“We further evaluated the association between the Community Severance Index and road traffic collisions specifically when pedestrians or cyclists were injured/killed, finding similar effects. We also took into account additional factors, including sociodemographic data, which could potentially influence the association between the Community Severance Index and road traffic collisions.”

The researchers focused on road traffic collisions, as an approximation for road safety, because they can affect urban health both directly through injuries and death, but also indirectly, by for example, influencing the chosen transportation mode. “Perception of lower road safety can lead people to choose to drive a car instead of cycling or walking in their day-by-day trips,” said Benavides.

The health impacts of living in severed communities, nonetheless, can go beyond road safety. For instance, other studies have shown that residents on streets with higher traffic volume interact less with their neighbors relative to those living on less congested streets. Historically in the U.S., financial and political support has prioritized highways instead of public transit systems. Many of these urban highways were built directly through the neighborhoods of disadvantaged Black communities, severing their connections internally and, or, segregating them from other communities. Investigating how the predominant presence of roads and traffic shapes our health and behaviors and acts as a barrier, to the detriment of urban spaces for pedestrians, was the authors’ motive to develop an index to measure community severance.

“Our results highlight the necessity to further understand how the presence of road infrastructure and traffic influences human health in cities beyond most commonly studied traffic-related exposures such as air pollution and noise,” said Kioumourtzoglou. “The comprehensive indicator we developed for the presence of roads and traffic, the Community Severance Index, can be useful to identify areas that require targeted interventions, such as pedestrianization programs in New York City and other U.S. cities,” said Benavides.

Co-authors are Sabah Usmani and Vijay Kumar, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health.

The work was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) (P30 ES009089, R01 ES028805, R01 ES030616). The authors have no known competing financial interests.

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Founded in 1922, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Columbia Mailman School is the fourth largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its nearly 300 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change and health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with more than 1,300 graduate students from 55 nations pursuing a variety of master’s and doctoral degree programs. The Columbia Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers, including ICAP and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit www.mailman.columbia.edu.

JOURNAL

Environment International

DOI

10.1016/j.envint.2024.108526

ARTICLE TITLE

Development of a community severance index for urban areas in the United States: A case study in New York City

Illinois study: Supporting disease-challenged broiler chickens through nutrition

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Julianna Jespersen — IMAGE:
NEW UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS RESEARCH FROM JULI JESPERSEN (PICTURED), RYAN DILGER, AND OTHERS PROVIDES A HOLISTIC LOOK AT NUTRITIONAL SUPPORT FOR BROILER CHICKENS EXPERIENCING A COMMON PARASITIC DISEASE.
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CREDIT: JULIANNA JESPERSEN, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

URBANA, Ill. — When broiler chickens are busy fighting the parasitic infection coccidiosis, they can’t absorb nutrients efficiently or put energy toward growth. With consumer sentiment pitted against antimicrobials and other drugs, producers still have some options to ensure optimal growth during inevitable outbreaks. New research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign suggests diet changes might help.

“Vaccines and anticoccidials are the traditional ways to prevent this disease. Nutrition can't replace all of the pharmaceuticals, but it can be supportive in providing care,” said senior study author Ryan Dilger, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at U. of I.

Standard poultry diets have been carefully formulated to provide for the nutritional requirements of healthy birds, but diets had never been holistically optimized for disease-challenged broilers. Dilger and doctoral student Julianna Jespersen set out to fill that gap.

“Using nutrition to support healthy poultry has been a hot topic for 50-plus years. The novelty in our approach is to look at all the major nutrients simultaneously, rather than looking at them individually,” Dilger said. “That’s information producers can use.”

In two studies, both published in Poultry Science, the research team induced coccidiosis, and then altered the diet to understand the roles of various ingredients. In the first study, the team adjusted the starch, oil, and amino acid content of the classic broiler diet and monitored body weight gain and feed conversion ratio.

“If you visualize a triangle, the three points represent diets with the highest starch, oil, and amino acid content,” Jespersen explained. “We used varying proportions of those three ingredients to mix 10 experimental diets, one being a control diet with an equal proportion of each ingredient.”

The optimal diet mix — the diet leading to the highest body weight gain in coccidiosis-challenged birds — consisted of 35.8% starch, 8.9% oil, and 101.3% of recommended amino acids relative to the control diet.

The researchers acknowledge 9% oil inclusion is well above practical levels for the industry.

“That level of oil is going to be hard for producers to fathom. But previous research from our lab has shown this parasite reduces lipid absorption in the gastrointestinal tract, so the birds can't get as much energy or lipid components out of the diet,” Dilger said. “We think that's why we found optimal results at 9%. Producers might look at that and laugh, but the bird is telling us why it should be that high for optimizing outcomes in disease-challenged birds.”

Jespersen says although it may not be feasible to include oil at 9%, the results show that increasing oil to any level above the usual 1% should be beneficial.

A second study looked specifically at optimal levels of methionine for coccidiosis-challenged broilers. As the first limiting amino acid, methionine levels dictate the overall growth of the bird.

“Unless methionine is supplied at adequate levels, it doesn’t matter how much of the other amino acids are in the diet,” Jespersen explained.

Again, methionine inclusion levels have been determined for healthy chickens, but little was known about how much of the amino acid is needed in disease-challenged birds. The research team tested a diet with methionine levels 15% below, equivalent to, and 15% above that of a standard diet for healthy birds. The data showed that bumping methionine up from 15% below to the equivalent amount was beneficial, and suggested that more was even better. However, the results were statistically inconclusive.

“We did not actually determine what the methionine requirement was for infected birds in this experiment, but we found evidence that the methionine requirement does increase during a coccidiosis infection,” Jespersen said. “Knowing that most broilers are going to be exposed to this infection during their growth cycle, we're recommending that we bump up methionine. We still need to do more research to determine the exact level.”

Dilger says coccidiosis is a fact of life for broiler production. Birds walk on the ground and will inevitably ingest parasites, which start to propagate in their intestines.

“One parasite becomes two, becomes four, and then they excrete them out and other birds pick them up. They're always cycling in this way,” he said. “We’re hoping producers will use what we’ve learned here about nutrition to help broilers combat infection and keep growing.”

The first study, “Defining optimal dietary starch, oil, and amino acid inclusion levels for broilers experiencing a coccidiosis challenge,” is published in Poultry Science [DOI: 10.1016/j.psj.2023.103335]. The second study, “Effects of a coccidiosis challenge on dietary methionine recommendations in broilers,” is also published in Poultry Science [DOI: 10.1016/j.psj.2024.103502]. This research was sponsored by Evonik Operations, Nutrition & Care.

JOURNAL

Poultry Science

DOI

10.1016/j.psj.2024.103502

Editor-in-Chief of Sustainability and Climate Change Madhavi Venkatesan named USA TODAY Woman of the Year for Massachusetts for leading plastic bottle ban efforts

Business Announcement

MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC./GENETIC ENGINEERING NEWS

Madhavi Venkatesan, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Sustainability and Climate Change and founder of Sustainable Practices, has been named USA TODAY Woman of the Year for the state of Massachusetts in recognition of her outstanding efforts to eliminate single-use plastic bottles across Cape Cod and the Islands.

With economics and sustainability at the forefront, Venkatesan established Sustainable Practices in 2016, aiming to address pressing environmental issues through innovative solutions. Since then, she and her nonprofit team have spearheaded a series of initiatives that have significantly reduced plastic waste in the region. In 2019, Sustainable Practices launched a groundbreaking municipal plastic bottle ban campaign, targeting the elimination of non-emergency single-use plastic bottles by town governments and the sale of beverages in single-use plastic containers on municipal property across Barnstable County. By June 2021, all 15 towns on Cape Cod had implemented the policy, marking a significant milestone in the fight against plastic pollution.

Building on this success, in 2020, Venkatesan and her team initiated a commercial single-use plastic water bottle ban, calling for the prohibition of the sale of non-carbonated, non-flavored water in single-use plastic bottles of less than one gallon in size within town jurisdictions. By 2023, nine towns, including Brewster, Chatham, Eastham, Falmouth, Harwich, Orleans, Provincetown, Wellfleet, and Yarmouth, had implemented commercial bans, further reducing plastic waste and promoting sustainability in the region.

In recognition of Sustainable Practices' impactful work, Gov. Maura Healey presented the organization with a citation in January, acknowledging their dedication to environmental stewardship and the success of their bottle ban efforts. Following the organization's lead, Gov. Healey announced in September that she would sign an executive order banning the purchase of single-use plastic bottles by state agencies, aligning with Sustainable Practices' mission to create a cleaner, greener future for Massachusetts.

Dr. Venkatesan's leadership and commitment to sustainability have not only transformed communities across Cape Cod and the Islands but have also inspired change at the state level. Her tireless advocacy and innovative solutions serve as a beacon of hope in the global fight against plastic pollution.

About the Journal
Sustainability and Climate Change is a peer-reviewed publication dedicated to furthering the science of sustainability, sustainable development, and climate change. The Journal provides a forum for original research papers, as well as a compelling mix of feature article content—commentaries, perspectives, and reviews—that supplement the research and highlight the social, ethical, and business issues facing the field. The Journal is led by Editor-in-Chief Madhavi Venkatesan, PhD, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, and an esteemed international editorial board. Complete tables of contents and a sample issue are available on the Sustainability and Climate Change website.

About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a global media company dedicated to creating, curating, and delivering impactful peer-reviewed research and authoritative content services to advance the fields of biotechnology and the life sciences, specialized clinical medicine, and public health and policy. For complete information, please visit the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. website.

JOURNAL

Sustainability and Climate Change

METHOD OF RESEARCH

News article

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

Role of African women and young people in agricultural service provision investigated in new CABI-led study

The role of African women and young people engaged in agricultural service provision has been investigated in a new CABI-led study published in the CABI Agriculture and Bioscience journal.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CABI

Study shows that the engagement of African women and young people in agricultural service provision is ‘not a panacea to the challenges they face’ such as limited decision-making in production and income (Credit: CABI). — IMAGE:
STUDY SHOWS THAT THE ENGAGEMENT OF AFRICAN WOMEN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN AGRICULTURAL SERVICE PROVISION IS ‘NOT A PANACEA TO THE CHALLENGES THEY FACE’ SUCH AS LIMITED DECISION-MAKING IN PRODUCTION AND INCOME (CREDIT: CABI).
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CREDIT: CABI

The role of African women and young people engaged in agricultural service provision has been investigated in a new CABI-led study published in the CABI Agriculture and Bioscience journal.

By combining a literature review with ongoing action research in Kenya, the scientists provide insights into the main characteristics, benefits, and shortfalls of business models for engaging women and young people in agricultural service provision in Africa.

‘Not a panacea to the challenges faced’

The findings show that the engagement of African women and young people in agricultural service provision is ‘not a panacea to the challenges they face’ such as limited decision-making in production and income.

However, the researchers argue that various business models have been successful in contributing to economic empowerment, to increasing entrepreneurial activities and to upskilling of women and young people engaged as service providers.

Business models that are successful, the researchers say, are place-based and people-focused, market-driven and focused on value chains.

Need for multi-sectoral inter-institutional collaboration

Challenges however abound due to various factors. Therefore, for sustainability there is need for multi-sectoral inter-institutional collaboration that pulls in funding and which makes a case for private sector buy-in, they stress.

Women play a significant and increasing role in agriculture in Africa – making up 55% of the workforce. Meanwhile, almost 60% of Africa’s population in 2019 was under the age of 25, making Africa the world’s youngest continent.

Dr Mariam Kadzamira, lead author and Senior Researcher, Agribusiness at CABI, said, “Africa’s women and youth hold the key to the continent’s very survival and the burden to sustain wider global development.

“But they remain on the periphery of decision-making processes, have limited control over productive resources and are predominantly engaged in low paying and/or non-remunerated roles within the sector.

“For sustained and effective engagement of women and young people in agricultural service provision, there is need for multi-sectoral inter-institutional collaboration. This requires long term dedicated funding from governments and development partners.

“Dedicated funding should include components for continuous capacity building as well as provision of low-cost credit for the service providers.”

Multiple skills for potential service providers

She adds that any capacity building programme should budget to provide potential service providers with multiple skills, for them to respond effectively to the evolving needs of their communities, value chains or industry, thus enabling them to earn a sufficient level of income over a cropping season.

Co-author, Dr Monica Kansiime, CABI’s Deputy Director of Development and Outreach for Africa, said, “There is also need for buy-in from industry and the private sector to deliberately incorporate women and young people in their business plans and marketing networks.

“This requires a clear articulation of how the market-driven approach would contribute to the bottom line of the agribusiness while concurrently tapping into a locally available and underutilized human resource.”

The researchers highlight that future research should focus on increasing the evidence base to understand if successes with inclusion of women and young people in agricultural service provision has an influence on agricultural policy.

They also stress a need to rigorously assess the extent to which successful agricultural service business models are engendered – given the prevailing gender gap in the agricultural sector and the fact that service provision in agriculture is still predominantly delivered by men.

Socio-cultural barriers, institutional constraints, and financial bottlenecks

Dr Kadzamira added, “Such research should aim to contribute to the identification of comprehensive strategies for training and engagement of women, young or otherwise, as agricultural service providers and for increasing women’s access to agricultural services once they are made available.

“This research should also aim to understand how promoters can work to overcome the socio-cultural barriers, institutional constraints and financial bottlenecks that make it harder for women to enter or to stay in agriculture service provision in Africa.”

The researchers conclude by suggesting there is need for robust transdisciplinary research to ground truth the various insights emerging from the action research reported in this study as well as similar numerous efforts available as grey literature.

Dr Kansiime added, “Focus should be on quantifying actual renumeration to service providers, and clientele’s (farmers) willingness-to-pay for services rendered by local women and youth versus their willingness-to-pay for services rendered by other service providers.

“There is also a need to measure and quantify impacts at farmer level of the engagement of women and young people as agricultural service providers.”

Additional information

Main image: Study shows that the engagement of African women and young people in agricultural service provision is ‘not a panacea to the challenges they face’ such as limited decision-making in production and income (Credit: CABI).

Full paper reference

Kadzamira, M., Chege, F., Suntharalingam, C., Mary Bundi, M., Likoko, L., Magero, D., Romney, D., Kansiime, M., and Mulema, J., ‘African women and young people as agriculture service providers – business models, benefits, gaps and opportunities,’ CABI Agriculture & Bioscience, 4 March 2024, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s43170-024-00229-y

The paper can be read full open access here.

JOURNAL

CABI Agriculture and Bioscience

DOI

10.1186/s43170-024-00229-y

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

African women and young people as agriculture service providers – business models, benefits, gaps and opportunities

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-Mar-2024

BOYCOTT

Air Canada Becomes 2nd North American Airline To Announce A Return To Israel

BYJONATHAN E. HENDRY

PUBLISHED 1 DAY AGO

Photo: Air Canada

The Star Alliance carrier will resume flights from Toronto next month, followed by Montreal in May.

SUMMARY

Air Canada joins United Airlines in resuming flights to Tel Aviv, using the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner for the route.

The carrier's flight (AC 80) will leave Toronto for Tel Aviv on April 8th, with the first return flight on April 10th.

Air Canada temporarily canceled flights last October due to hostilities but will now resume flights from Toronto next month, with Montreal to follow in May.

Canadian flag carrier Air Canada is the latest airline to resume flights to Tel Aviv. The carrier joins fellow Star Alliance Member United Airlines in resuming flights to the city this spring after suspending them last October.
Dreaming of a 787 Service

Air Canada has confirmed its return to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV) beginning next month. Simple Flying's analysis of flight schedule data provided to Cirium shows the first flight since the suspension departing on April 8th with one of the carrier's Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners.

The link is set to leave Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) at 16:44 on Monday, April 8th from Terminal 1. The flight (AC 80) is scheduled to take ten hours and 30 minutes to arrive, landing at Tel Aviv's Terminal 3 at 09:55 the following morning.

RELATED
United Airlines To Become The First US Carrier To Resume Tel Aviv FlightsThe service was originally suspended in October 2023.

The return flight does not leave Tel Aviv until Wednesday, April 10th. Departing just before noon at 11:55 local time, the flight (AC 81) is blocked to take eleven and a half hours to reach Toronto where it lands at 16:55 the same day. Speaking to Open Jaw, Air Canada's Peter Fitzpatrick confirmed the airline is targeting April for its return to the airport:

"We have always said we intend to resume service to TLV, and we are finalizing the logistics at this point for a potential resumption in April,"

The carrier is deploying its Dreamliners on the route. The widebody jets are configured to seat 21 passengers in business class, 21 in premium economy, and 21 in standard economy.

Back at Ben Gurion

United Airlines was the first North American carrier to resume flights to the airport. The carrier's first two flights were operated via Munich for technical contingencies and have arrived safely, signaling the resumption of nonstop flights between Tel Aviv and Newark (EWR), which serves the New York City region.

The UK flag carrier has also opted to switch the aircraft used on this route.

Air Canada temporarily canceled flights between Canada and Tel Aviv on October 8th, 2023, citing the hostilities in Israel. Airline officials suggested at the time that flights would be resumed when deemed appropriate:

“We are monitoring this dynamic situation closely and we will adjust these plans as required,” airline officials said at the time.

“We remain in contact with the Canadian government. Air Canada will resume operations to Tel Aviv as soon as the situation stabilizes.”

Photo: WorldStock | Shutterstock

Other carriers to resume flights to Tel Aviv this year included eight European carriers, which resumed services in January. Up next, Air Canada will reinstate flights from Montreal (YUL) to Tel Aviv on May 1st, also with its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners.

More Disruption: Lufthansa Staff Set To Strike Again On Thursday & Friday

BY RYTIS BERESNEVIČIUS

Following previous labor action, the ver.di union called for tougher measures since its demands were not met by Lufthansa.

Lufthansa
IATA/ICAO Code:LH/DLH
Airline Type:Full Service Carrier
Hub(s):Frankfurt Airport, Munich Airport
Year Founded:1953
Alliance:Star Alliance
Airline Group:Lufthansa Group
CEO:Carsten Spohr
Country:Germany

SUMMARY

Ground handling employees at Lufthansa are set to strike on March 7 and 8 due to failed negotiations over salary demands.

Ver.di called for early negotiations with Lufthansa before the next round of discussions but was met with no improvement in offers.

Prior strikes by ver.di have targeted specific sectors within Lufthansa, aiming to increase pressure on the airline.

Following unsuccessful negotiations, the United Services Union (Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft, ver.di) has called for Lufthansa’s ground-handling employees to strike for two days, ahead of the next round of negotiations between the union and the airline.

Failing to match demands

In its statement, ver.di urged Lufthansa’s ground-handling employees to strike, which would follow industrial action by employees at Lufthansa Cargo and Lufthansa Technik. The strikes are scheduled for March 7 and March 8, with the union referring to them as "warning strikes."

Photo: Nate Hovee | Shutterstock

Ver.di explained that during the previous round of negotiations on February 21 and 22, Lufthansa Group only improved its offer in two areas, including an increase in the salary offer of 0.5%. The union’s primary demand has been a salary increase of at least 12.5%. As a result, the two sides failed to reach an agreement, and the next round of negotiations are scheduled for March 13 and March 14, around a week after ver.di’s planned labor action.

In a statement to Simple Flying, a Lufthansa Group spokesperson said that this was the latest escalation by the union in just a few days, with ver.di's four strikes now amounting to a total of 145 hours, adding that this was "significantly longer than the negotiation period."

"There have only been two real negotiation dates and the further date offered for today, Monday, has obviously been rejected with the current strike call. Verdi is affecting over 200,000 passengers with this strike – Lufthansa is working on a special flight plan."

CN, USW Reach New Tentative Collective Agreement

Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor

(CN Photograph)

CN on March 1 reported reaching a new tentative three-year collective agreement with United Steelworkers (USW) Local 2004, which represents approximately 2,500 track and bridge workers, who are primarily responsible for the Class I’s track maintenance across Canada.

The deal comes after months of negotiations, kicking off in October 2023, with the current collective agreement having expired Dec. 31, 2023, according to the union.

The new agreement was unanimously endorsed by USW Local 2004’s nine-member bargaining committee, the union reported. Ratification meetings will take place this month via regional in-person and online townhall meetings.

No details will be released publicly until the new agreement is ratified, according to CN. Results of the ratification vote are expected by the end of March or early April, the union said.

“We are proud of this new deal that we were able to reach after many long weeks,” commented USW Local 2004 President Cole Kramer. “Our members do important work in ensuring the continuing viability of our national railways and I am pleased that we were able to reach an agreement that fairly compensates them for their efforts.”

USW is said to represent 225,000 members “in nearly every economic sector across Canada and is the largest private-sector union in North America, with 850,000 members in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean.”

Separately, CN and Canadian Pacific Kansas City on Feb. 16 filed separate Notices of Dispute in their negotiations with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference.

UPDATE: NTSB reviews data, image recorders from 3-train collision, derailment

LehighValleyNews.com | By Ryan Gaylor
Published March 3, 2024
Bethlehem News

A Norfolk Southern worker disassembles tracks Sunday morning near a derailment in Lower Saucon Twp.

LOWER SAUCON TWP., Pa. — Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board continued work Sunday to determine why three freight trains collided and derailed near Steel City on Saturday morning.

Shortly after 7 a.m. Saturday, an eastbound freight train operated by Norfolk Southern hit another train stopped on the same tracks, according to the NTSB.

“The area where the locomotives were in the water will remain contained with booms until any residual sheen has been removed."
Norfolk Southern spokesperson

The collision pushed several railcars onto neighboring tracks and into the path of an oncoming westbound train.

NTSB investigators arrived in Lower Saucon on Saturday afternoon, according to agency spokeswoman Sarah Sulick. In addition to mechanically examining the derailed cars, officials retrieved video from inward- and outward-facing cameras on each train, operations and control data from recorders in each locomotive, and logs stored by trackside signals.

The team of investigators is made up of “experts in train operations, signals and train control, and human performance,” she wrote in a statement.

By Sunday morning, the NTSB had released control of the site to Norfolk Southern, freeing crews to pull two locomotives from the river bank and partially in the Lehigh River.

Cleanup crews with a Norfolk Southern subcontractor, Lewis Environmental, were visible working near yellow floating booms in the water to contain spilled diesel fuel.

Courtesy
/
Nancy Run Fire CompanyTrain engines on the bank of the Lehigh River, partially submerged, after a derailment Saturday, March 2, 2024, off Riverside Drive in Lower Saucon Township.

Ryan Gaylor
/
LehighValleyNews.ComTwo divots are visible along the Lehigh River Sunday morning where a pair of locomotives came to rest after derailing.

“The area where the locomotives were in the water will remain contained with booms until any residual sheen has been removed,” a Norfolk Southern spokesperson wrote in an email.

Plastic pellets also spilled into the river, Lower Saucon Police Chief Thomas Barndt said Saturday, but there was no risk of hazardous material being released by the derailment.

No injuries were reported as a result of the collision.

Norfolk Southern crews were working to remove the tracks affected by the derailment, stacking them along the side of the right-of-way.

NTSB investigators will remain in the Lehigh Valley for several more days, Sulick said, chiefly to interview Norfolk Southern crew members involved in the crash.

Cleanup to take days, cause a year or two

Cleanup is likely to take several days, officials said yesterday.

The NTSB will release a preliminary report on the accident in about three weeks, to include "factual information gathered during the initial phase of the investigation," said Sulick. A final report laying out exactly what caused the accident will take one to two years.

“We were very, very, very fortunate.”
Lower Saucon Township Council President Priscilla deLeon

While each investigation is different, NTSB personnel are typically on site for about a week.

Riverside Drive will remain closed east of Steel City while the wreckage is cleared, Lower Saucon Township Council President Priscilla deLeon said.

That gives residents only one way in and out of town.

DeLeon said she has long worried that a train carrying hazardous materials would crash near Steel City.

“We were very, very, very fortunate,” she said, that none of the railcars thrown from their tracks Saturday were carrying dangerous cargo.

Staff writer Tom Shortell contributed to this report.

NTSB Investigating NS Collision, Derailment in Pennsylvania (UPDATED)

Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive EditorMarch 02, 2024

“Rescue Engine 1413 is currently on scene with a train derailment in the area of Riverside Dr. in Lower Saucon. It is reported there are no injuries, with train cars into the river. Lower Saucon Fire Rescue and Northampton County Emergency Management Services are working with multiple local and state agencies on this incident,” the Nancy Run Fire Company of Bethlehem, Pa., reported early March 2 on Facebook. (Photograph Courtesy of Nancy Run Fire Company, via Facebook)

Three Norfolk Southern (NS) trains were involved in a derailment March 2 just east of Steel City, Pa., along the Lehigh River. There were no reported injuries to crews. An eastbound train collided with a stopped train on the same track, and the wreckage that spilled onto an adjacent track was struck by a westbound train, according to preliminary information from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), media outlets said. It was not immediately known how many cars derailed. The Lower Saucon Township Police Department reported there were no evacuations or hazardous material threat to the community.

Emergency personnel were dispatched at 7:15 a.m., according to the Department. Railcars were on the riverbank and at least one locomotive was partially in the water. (See photos below.)

Diesel fuel spilled into the river and containment booms were deployed, the Department reported. “Norfolk Southern called it a small diesel fuel leak ‘common when locomotives are involved’ that was contained with the booms and would be ‘vacuumed out,’” according to the Associated Press.

Polypropylene plastic pellets also spilled from one derailed car, and an NS spokesperson told CBS News Philadelphia that the pellets landed “predominantly onto the ground.”

NS is on site and reported via social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that it is assessing the scene with first responders. “We appreciate the quick, professional response by local emergency agencies,” the Class I railroad said. “Our crews and contractors will remain on-scene over the coming days to cleanup, and we appreciate the public’s patience while they work as quickly, thoroughly and as safely as possible. We are always working to advance safety. We will investigate this incident to understand how it happened and prevent others like it.”

“We are very pleased that this derailment was so quickly and expertly handled. I want to thank all of the first responders for that,” said Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure, according to LehighValleyNews.com.

The Federal Railroad Administration said via social media that its safety personnel was working with emergency responders and local authorities on the scene.

Among the other responding agencies: The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Pennsylvania Fish Commission, Northampton County Emergency Management, Lower Saucon Fire and Rescue, Bethlehem Township Volunteer Company, Freemansburg Fire Company, Dewey Fire and EMS, and Lehigh County Special Ops Team.

NTSB Investigation

The NTSB will release a preliminary report in three weeks, CBS News Philadelphia reported March 3.

It has started “reviewing data from the trains’ event recorders and other evidence and has collected some information to send to Washington, D.C., to be analyzed,” the media outlet said. The investigators also examined the derailed cars and other train equipment, according to the NTSB.

“Investigators are expected to work at the site for several more days, speaking with crew members and gathering other information to determine what caused the crash. Although they are still collecting evidence, NTSB officials said they have released the site so Norfolk Southern can begin to move the cars and repair the tracks.”

The final NTSB report, detailing the probable cause of the collision and derailment, is expected in one-to-two years, according to the NTSB, CBS News Philadelphia reported.

***(Photograph Courtesy of Nancy Run Fire Company, via Facebook)***

Tags: Breaking News, Federal Railroad Administration, Lower Saucon Township Police Department, National Transportation Safety Board, Norfolk Southern