FILE - This photo taken with a drone shows portions of a Norfolk and Southern freight train that derailed Friday night in East Palestine, Ohio are still on fire at mid-day Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

YOUNGSTOWN — With the Norfolk Southern train derailment civil trial in its third week, the focus of testimony Tuesday in U.S. District Court was Steve Smith, technical manager for OxyVinyls, the company that provided the five tankers of vinyl chloride that were vented and burned Feb. 6, 2023, after the Feb. 3, 2023, East Palestine train derailment.

Smith was called to the stand by attorneys for OxyVinyls. His testimony was intended to show the reasons Smith and other OxyVinyls officials felt the vinyl chloride was not undergoing a change called polymerization. Fear of polymerization and a “catastrophic explosion” was the reason officials gave for the vent and burn.

The National Transportation Safety Board would later say the vent and burn of five vinyl chloride tankers “didn’t have to happen,” according to media coverage of the remarks of NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy to Congress last year. The vent and burn sent a plume of black smoke over the town, leading to a days-long evacuation and fears about health effects.

The civil trial, being overseen by Judge Benita Y. Pearson, was sought by Norfolk Southern to determine whether OxyVinyls and GATX, owner of the rail car that failed, should share the burden of paying a $600 million settlement Norfolk Southern reached with the community.

The trial resumes today and is expected to last another week.

Under questioning by OxyVinyls attorney Alycia Broz, Smith testified that he and two other OxyVinyls employees were sent to East Palestine Feb. 5. Smith said he believes the reason he was sent was because of his 29 years with OxyVinyls and 36 years in the industry. The vent and burn took place 26 hours after he arrived.

Over that time, he communicated heavily with OxyVinyl experts through phone calls, texts and emails and was the primary spokesman for OxyVinyls. Smith said he gained “insight” into the conditions among the damaged vinyl chloride tankers from Drew McCarty, president of Specialized Professional Services, the company Norfolk Southern hired to manage the derailment.

Smith said he learned that officials were thinking about a vent and burn because of the possibility polymerization was happening in the vinyl chloride tankers, but OxyVinyls’ experts in Texas disagreed, he said.

“We communicated that we saw no evidence of polymerization because we saw no evidence of the temperature rise that is associated with polymerization,” Smith said.

Norfolk Southern attorney Brittany Amadi cross examined Smith, focusing on Smith’s admitted lack of experience in hazardous materials response, fire and train derailment and polymerization. He was head of the three-person group sent to East Palestine, he said.

Smith agreed that OxyVinyls has employees in Dallas and elsewhere with experience in polymerization.

Amadi displayed numerous text messages and emails between Smith and other OxyVinyls officials in Texas as they talked about the conditions in East Palestine, including questions Smith was getting from emergency response officials regarding polymerization and other issues.

Smith testified that he relayed the questions, including ones from the NTSB, back to OxyVinyls colleagues. Amadi also displayed directives from Smith’s superiors at OxyVinyls telling him he was “not to be involved in managing or recommending” steps to address the emergency response.

“You abided by those instructions, yes?” Amadi asked Smith.

“Yes,” he said.

Smith never “touched any of the (rail) cars” or “took any temperature readings off of rail cars,” and the OxyVinyls team did not “offer any mitigation ideas” to the emergency response officials, he agreed.

“I did not have the expertise in that area, so I had to pass it along,” he said of questions the emergency response team asked him. Under further questioning, Smith agreed that he had some concerns of his own about the possibility of polymerization happening and expressed those back to OxyVinyls officials in Texas, he said.