From all accounts to date, the collision and derailment of Norfolk Southern freight train #192 in Graniteville, South Carolina on January 6, 2005 was an accident, although the investigation is ongoing. Certainly, train derailments do occur, but when freight trains carrying hazardous materials (HAZMAT) crash and spill their contents, it is cause for concern to the local community. The freight trains had several tanker cars filled with chorine gas and one with sodium hydroxide. There was a major chlorine leak from at least one of the tankers resulting in the release of noxious fumes. The sodium hydroxide also spilled. While there was an initial order to shelter in place around a two mile radius, it was later changed to the evacuation of 5,400 people in a one mile radius. In the Graniteville crash, nine people have been confirmed dead?victims included the train conductor and people in close proximity, including factory workers at the nearby Avondale Mills Textile Plant. With the exception of the conductor, the fatalities were the result of chorine inhalation. Fifty people were hospitalized and another 250 reported ill effects.

The freight train derailed because it was diverted by a switch off the mainline rail to a sideline where it collided with a parked train. Thus far, there has been no evidence of tampering with the switch, but it is open to question why a switch was left in that particular position. Train derailments are not new; there was a hazardous spill of chlorine gas a few months ago in Texas resulting in three fatalities and a major ammonia spill in Minot, North Dakota that killed one person. Although there were casualties in these cases, it was lucky that the spills did not occur in major populated areas and did not involve major breaches with more toxic clouds spreading. According to ABC News, a Navy Research Laboratory Study claims that 100,000 people could be killed in a half-hour period if there ?[were] a major breach of a chlorine tanker in a populated area.? The NTSB has also warned that more than half of the nations? rail tank cars are so old that they do not meet current industry standards and may rupture more easily. Although the accident rate is still relatively low, there are major shipments of dangerous lethal chemicals that occur every day as part of normal commerce.