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Pottstown Derailment

 
Site Contact:
Erik Armistead
On-Scene Coordinator

(Armistead.Erik@epa.gov)

Site Location:
Industrial Highway and Hanover Street
Pottstown, PA 19464
 scribenet.response.epa.gov/PDR

On the evening of May 9, 2025, four Norfolk Southern railcars carrying hazardous substances, including placarded UN-1993 flammable liquids and UN-2348 butyl acrylates, derailed from the track due to a broken wheel near Hanover and College Streets in Pottstown, Montgomery County, PA. Montgomery County dispatched a HazMat team and determined at 0043 hours on May 10, 2025 that no material was observed to be released. Norfolk Southern dispatched Cranemasters to re-right the railcars. At approximately 0600 hours May 10, 2025, while rerailing a butyl acrylate railcar, the crane failed and one railcar broke loose and slid down the bank of the Schuylkill River. No significant damage was observed and the railcar was not suspected to have released contents. This information is captured in PEMA Report No. 80306, plus subsequent updates to the report.