Update: Train Exec Didn’t Promise to Keep Mill Open after South Carolina Crash

The former chief executive of railroad owner Norfolk Southern says he never promised that his company would pay to keep a South Carolina textile mill open after it had been damaged by a 2005 toxic chemical spill.

A Norfolk Southern train crashed into parked train and released a poisonous cloud of chlorine over the mill town of Graniteville, S.C. Nine people died and 250 were injured.

The Aiken Standard reports that David Goode testified Tuesday by videotape that the railroad promised to clean up the site but denied vowing to keep Avondale Mills open.

Goode’s testimony is part of a $420 million lawsuit filed by the textile company.

Attorneys for the railroad have said that foreign competition, not crash-related damage, caused Avondale Mills to close.