TRAIN WRECK AND CHLORINE SPILL IN GRANITEVILLE

Train Wreck and Chlorine Spill in Graniteville, South Carolina

Train Wreck and Chlorine Spill in Graniteville

The rail crash of Graniteville, South Carolina train was an American rail disaster, which took place on January 6, 2005, in Graniteville, South Carolina. At approximately 2:40 am Eastern Standard Time, there were two trains from Norfolk Southern crashed in Graniteville near an Avondale Mills plant. Near the Avondale Mills plant, the Norfolk Southern train no. P22 was parked. Suddenly there was an improper diversion of the Train No. 192, which was transporting sodium hydroxide, chlorine gas, and cresol. This train was diverted and crashed into P22from a wrongly lined switch of railroad onto the siding. Both of the locomotives were derailed because of the collision and there were collisions of the locomotive, 16 of 192's 42 freight cars, and P22's two freight cars. One of the tank cars of 192's was loaded with around 90 tons of chlorine crashed, which released appr5oximately 60 tons of the gas. The industrial responders had recovered about 1/3 of the load. Due to the chlorine inhalation, nine people died and a minimum of 250 people were provided the treatment for chlorine exposure (Associated Press, 2008).

To date, the community is still combating the ongoing physical, psychological, and economic traumas surrounding the devastation. The town has been designated by the Health Services Research Administration as a medically underserved area/population (MUA/P) for having insufficient number of primary care providers, elevated infant mortality, with a disproportionate number of the population that is living in poverty and/or elderly. A technological disaster's impact on access to primary care for vulnerable sub-groups within a MUA community is unknown; whereby secondary surge patterns in primary care need is not well understood.

There were 5,400 residents living at a distance of merely a mile from the crash site. All of them were compelled to evacuate for approximately three weeks. While, HAZMAT cleanup crews eliminated the contamination from the area. The town of Graniteville alongside two smaller communities in close proximity was home to residents directly affected by the 2005 chlorine spill (i.e., direct group). Residents in the indirect group (i.e., primary control group) were in the same county as the communities affected by the disaster, but further south from the event (environmental data revealed that the chlorine gas traveled north). According to the opinions of various engineers and experts, the nation could ...