Three derailments and two fatalities lead to a unique American railroad investigation.

(RT) ⸻ The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has announced a rare "special investigation" into the "safety practices and culture" at Norfolk Southern Railway, operator of the train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio over a month ago, which may have doused the town in one of the most toxic substances on earth. The probe is the NTSB's fourth into incidents regarding Norfolk Southern's Ohio operations in just five weeks and the second in a single day, announced just hours after a collision between a dump truck and a train at a rail crossing in Cleveland left the conductor dead. Unlike typical investigations focused on single incidents, the latest NTSB probe hopes to diagnose and remedy any "organizational factors" that might be causing Norfolk Southern to go off the rails, specifically the rail operator's "safety culture." Norfolk Southern has lobbied heavily against safety regulations, operating longer than normal trains unions say are critically understaffed. The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Norfolk Southern to test the area for dioxins, which are formed when chlorine compounds burn. The Federal Railroad Administration has also stepped in to conduct a 60-day "supplemental safety assessment" of Norfolk Southern using the findings of a previous audit. Following Tuesday's crash, the company released a statement vowing to hold safety stand-down briefings and rebuild its safety culture.