In Lower Saucon Township, Pa., residents are awaiting the results of an investigation into yet another Norfolk Southern train derailment March 2. This one involved three trains and scattered rail cars along a riverbank. At least one was partially in the Lehigh River.

So far, the National Transportation Safety Board seems confident no hazardous materials were involved when an eastbound Norfolk Southern train struck a stopped Norfolk Southern train, sending wreckage onto an adjacent track that was hit by a westbound Norfolk Southern train. There was a small diesel fuel spill and plastic pellets spilled.

Norfolk Southern said it “quickly responded” to the derailment that “resulted in no harm to the community and no hazardous material concerns from the railcars.”

But what if any one of the three trains had been carrying something else? It seems a stroke of luck they were not.

By October there had been 742 train derailments in the U.S. last year, according to Federal Railroad Administration data. In fact, for the past decade an average 1,300 trains have derailed each year.

Yet Congress still sits on its hands rather than pass the Railway Safety Act. Worse, a report by The Intercept suggests some members of the U.S. Senate have not even looked at the bill.

It seems as though what Norfolk Southern is working hard to avoid — and making sure its friends in Congress do as well — is any measure that might make its trains, its employees and the residents of towns through which those trains pass safer. Cleaning up these messes is a more appealing cost of doing business than the cost of improving safety.

One day there will be another catastrophe. There will be no avoiding the blame that is cast then.