Quote:
Originally Posted by Rockstar
Ya that’s a lot isn’t it. Especially considering the effects just one derailment can have on human life and the environment. Some reports indicate that 25 to 30 million people could be affected from toxins released from the derailment in East Palestine, OH.
I’m pretty sure in this day and age there must be technology available which can improve the civil war era undercarriage and brake systems. Basic monitoring systems that can at least notify operators there’s been a goddamn fire raging on one of their cars for the last twenty miles. Instead of finding out after they’ve derailed, spilling carcinogens and toxins all over god’s green earth.
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Let's put that into perspective shall we? The U.S has 140,000 miles of RR track (that's enough to cross the U.S. from coast to coast 41 times), the U.S. also moves 1.7 Billion Tons of cargo across those tracks every year. Last week (final week of FEB) the RR's moved 459,233 train cars (box cars, hoppers, intermodal cars, etc.) from point A to point B (this does not include passenger rail). So if you extrapolate that number out to 52 weeks, that comes out to about 23.8 Million RR cars per year traveling across the U.S.
While the East Palestine derailment was preventable, the response by both Norfolk Southern and Biden Admin is a dismal failure. And rather than look for scapegoats, they should be working to repair and/or mitigate the damage caused to the area, and address the specific failure that caused this derailment (I have a feeling when all is said and done is that standard safety protocols were not adhered to).