Buttigieg's "Trump Blaming" for East Palestine, Ohio Train Derailment Wildly Dishonest
Is There Any Lie They Won't tell?
Biden Administration Transporation Secretary Pete Buttigieg shifted part of the blame for the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment to former President Trump on Wednesday.
Secretary Buttigieg tweeted:
We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe.
The proposed May 2015 Obama regulation to force the install of next generation electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes on certain rail cars was withdrawn by the Trump Administration. While the new braking systems can potentially reduce train stopping distances in extreme braking situations, the overwhelming majority of derailments are not caused by the type of braking system installed on rail cars.
What causes most derailments?
The Washington Post:
A derailment occurs when a train runs off its rail. This can happen for several reasons, including obstructions or mechanical malfunctions in the track, weather and human error. Broken or defective railroads are one of the most common causes of derailments, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.
In Ohio, investigators probing the derailment of the Norfolk Southern train, which caused no injuries, have said it was probably caused by issues on one of the rail car axles. The National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB], which is leading the investigation, on Tuesday said surveillance video shows a wheel bearing in the “final stage of overheat failure” moments before the derailment.
Did you catch that?
Washington Post reports that NTSB put out a statement ON TUESDAY stating that wheel bearing failure seems to be the cause, so why is it that ON WEDNESDAY Secretary Buttigieg is shifting blame to former President Trump about an obscure brake design regulation?
Is there anything these people will not lie to us about?
A sensor system on the rail tracks monitors the temperature of each wheel in order to detect wheel bearing or other axle failure. They are placed at least every 20 miles. Was one of these sensors defective?
It may also be the case that the box car inspectors missed the defective wheel bearings because in order to increase profits, inspectors, who used to get three minutes to inspect each car, are now given 60-90 seconds.
The New York Times:
Norfolk Southern’s Profits and Accident Rates Rose in Recent Years
Safety experts say a focus on financial returns may be partly to blame for derailments and accidents like the one in Ohio.
The rate of accidents on Norfolk Southern’s railway increased in each of the last four years, according to a recent company presentation. The record has worsened as executives at Norfolk Southern and other railroads have been telling investors on Wall Street that they can bolster their profit margins by keeping a lid on costs. At the same time, railway companies have lobbied against new rules aimed at making trains safer.
Norfolk Southern, which earned more than $3 billion last year, invested close to $2 billion in its railways and operations, up a third from 2021. But over the past five years, it paid shareholders nearly $18 billion through stock buybacks and dividends — twice as much as the amount it invested in its railways and operations. Other large railways have paid out billions to their shareholders, too, and their shares have done better than the wider stock market over the last decade.
While a new braking system to help trains stop faster sounds grand, a regulation requiring a quality safety inspection of each car sounds like an even better idea as it is something that can be done immediately.
So why has such on obvious regulatory fix evaded the Department of Transportation while we are facing over a thousand derailments a year? The defective wheel bearing issue is obviously a more common problem because sensors are put on the tracks to detect it.
Could it be that the two top stockholders of Norfolk-Southern are BlackRock and Vanguard?
Ironically BlackRock and Vanguard are the top proponents of ESG investing designed to invest for the purpose of social justice and climate change.
But it’s not like they are major campaign donors and lobbyists or anything like that…
Oh Wait…
Well, at least we are rebuilding bridges…in Ukraine.