Norfolk Southern has agreed to pay $600 million because of a train accident that happened in eastern Ohio in February 2023.
They said that this agreement if the court agrees, would take care of all the claims from people living within 20 miles of where the train went off the tracks. Those who were hurt within 10 miles, they can choose to be part of this settlement too.
People and businesses can use the money from this deal however they need to. This could be for things like medical bills, fixing their property, or making up for lost business. Those who were really close to the accident can also ask for more money if they got hurt or sick because of it.
Norfolk Southern says they’re not admitting they did anything wrong by settling this.
The court is expected to check this settlement in April 2024. If everything’s okay, the money could start going out by the end of the year.
Norfolk Southern has already spent over $1.1 billion cleaning up after the accident. They gave more than $104 million directly to East Palestine and its people. Some folks are upset because the town wasn’t declared a disaster area, partly because Norfolk Southern paid for the cleanup.
Federal officials said last week that the accident doesn’t count as a health emergency since they haven’t seen a lot of people getting sick from it.
The Environmental Protection Agency never officially called it a health emergency, even though a lot of people were worried about chemicals getting out. The situation got worse when they decided to blow up some of the train cars with dangerous chemicals inside.
The National Transportation Safety Board is still looking into why the accident happened. They think it might have been because one of the train’s wheels got too hot, but they won’t know for sure until June.
The cleanup in East Palestine is supposed to be done by the end of the year.
Norfolk Southern’s stock fell a little bit after this news came out.
