The crew of a freight train headed for Ohio earlier this month, unleashing a huge blaze and spreading dangerous chemicals in the community, tried to slow and stop the train after seeing an alert about an overheating wheel bearing, but it was revealed that a wheel bearing had been heating up for a long time before the train reached East Palestine, Ohio, near the Pennsylvania state line.
Fifty of the train s cars derailed carrying huge quantities of toxic chemicals prompted an evacuation order and a declaration of a state of emergency in the Ohio village.
The transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, visited the area on Thursday and federal environmental regulators earlier in the week took control of the clean-up, ordered the US railroad company, Norfolk Southern, to pay the bill.