BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A train derailment under the Hill-to-Hill Bridge earlier this month was the result of human error and had nothing to do with track conditions, Norfolk Southern Railroad said it has determined.
"We investigated the derailment from earlier this month and determined the cause was a train handling error/issue, so not a track issue," Norfolk/Southern Senior Communications Manager Heather Garcia told LehighValleyNews.com in an email Wednesday.
Garcia did not indicate if the employee behind the controls was new or inexperienced.
"In this instance, it was four empty gondola cars, so no hazmat involved, so relatively minor in the scheme of things. So it was all us investigating, all internal, looking into what we can do, how to avoid that going into the future."Norfolk/Southern Senior Communications Manager Heather Garcia
Garcia said that because the July 5 derailment did not involve hazardous materials, and no one was injured in the incident, it was strictly an internal investigation.
"In this instance, it was four empty gondola cars, so no hazmat involved, so relatively minor in the scheme of things," she said.
"So it was all us investigating, all internal, looking into what we can do, how to avoid that going into the future."
In September 2022, a Norfolk Southern train derailment happened when three empty automobile carriers left the tracks in the same spot.
Blamed on sudden stop
Comments from onlookers on the bridge observing the July 5 crash scene from above, as well as ones on social media, referenced what looked like a neglected track.
Not so, Garcia said.
"They had just pulled out of the yard, so it was just a matter of them needing to come to a stop, like a car would, and they did so suddenly."Norfolk/Southern Senior Communications Manager Heather Garcia
"They had just pulled out of the yard, so it was just a matter of them needing to come to a stop, like a car would, and they did so suddenly" — as opposed to slowing down prior to stopping, Garcia said.
The derailed cars were part of a 125-car train crossing the Lehigh River at 2:41 p.m., the Bethlehem Fire Department said in a July 5 release.
Two other cars on the train were carrying hazardous materials, according to a news release. There were no reported injuries, and the Lehigh River was not involved or affected in the derailment.
In March, a three-train crash near Steel City in Lower Saucon Township sent two locomotives into the Lehigh River and derailed several cars.
Seven crew members were injured.
There was about $2.5 million in damage to the Norfolk Southern rail line in that incident, according to federal investigators.
Three of those cars had been hauling hazardous materials earlier but were empty at the time of the crash, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.
