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After the Ohio Derailment Disaster, the Rail Industry Can Do Better - The New York Times [1]
['David Sirota', 'Rebecca Burns', 'Julia Rock', 'Matthew Cunningham-Cook']
Date: 2023-02-17
But the rail industry turned around and began lobbying against the requirement, saying that the brake mandate would “impose tremendous costs without providing offsetting safety benefits.”
After a 2016 campaign in which rail industry donors poured more than $6 million into G.O.P. campaign coffers, President Donald Trump repealed the brake rule, and the Biden administration has failed to restore it.
All of this happened as rail company owners took home nearly $200 billion in stock buybacks and dividends and reduced their work force by nearly 30 percent as part of a so-called “precision scheduled railroading” strategy, despite workers’ warning that understaffing has made it more difficult to maintain safety and maintenance standards.
Flash forward to Feb. 3 in East Palestine, Ohio: The roughly 150-car train carrying flammable carcinogens, such as vinyl chloride and benzene, wasn’t classified as a “high-hazard flammable train,” or H.H.F.T. — even though the fire was hazardous enough to require local evacuations. Three days later, crews had to release and burn five tank cars of the toxic gas, creating a black plume of smoke easily visible from passing passenger jets. Other dangerous chemicals had already spilled or burned in the initial crash.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/17/opinion/ohio-train-derailment-safety-regulation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
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