The Palestine train derailment: The Opportune Accident
The Palestine train derailment was just the opportune crisis that caught the attention of as many people as possible to the presumed detrimental consequences of private railroad ownership. Many people are accepting the media narrative that it is an accident. Indeed, the media has the role of regarding it as an accident until proven otherwise. Therein lies the problem of mainstream media. Almost anyone following the facts in the context of the politics of the day would have to beg the question of how this event hurts or helps a particular political party. On the surface, most would say that a presumed railroad industry failure would hurt Buttigieg further after the airline failure of December. This was precisely the narrative of the mainstream media as the White House tried to deflect the responsibility of the secretary of transportation in such a crisis of this magnitude. Did Buttigieg avoid the site of the crash out of fear of being exposed? Did he do so out of being insensitive and naive to his responsibilities? After all, the mainstream media has trained the majority of the population to regard elected officials as outrageously stupid, naive, and distant from real life problems. The sources of the narrative they pump out has become everyone’s new intelligence. These narratives are designed to prompt the public to disregard the more threatening inquiry that could lead to doubt about what they claim. Why would a publicly embattled transportation secretary hesitate a public appearance at the moment of crisis? If Donald Trump had not shown up with the much needed water, guaranteed Buttigieg would have shown up much later. Why the wait? If we return a little bit of credit to the intelligence of the secretary, and regard the overall political context of the situation, one in which the administration is fully committed to progress toward transforming the transportation sector into an electric one, cars, buses, and now trains, we might be able to calculate the optical benefit of the secretary showing up to blame the lack of regulation of the industry as the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) points to the Trump rollbacks of regulations three years ago. But even after 10 days of investigation, the chairman of the NTSB was forced to publicly substantiate that the accident was not caused by such rollbacks. Prior to any conclusions from the NTSB, the Biden administration along with the lion chief of the socialist democratic senators, Chuck Schumer, took full and immediate advantage of the accident to blame the Trump regulatory rollbacks, this before any actions meant to help the community cope with their immediate needs of healthcare assurances, financial assurances and bottled water distribution. If you are acutely sickened by a chemical spill, and then 2 days later by an intentionally controlled chemical explosion, logically, the first thing you want addressed is the anxiety and confusion caused by the lack of information. Even after the residents were evacuated and 2 days later returned to their homes, they weren’t updated as to the possible hazards that still needed to be investigated regarding soil and water. In stead they were given conflicting recommendations as to whether the water was safe to drink. The second thing you might want addressed is the actual response to the damage. The third thing you would want addressed is the assurance of avoiding long term adverse health effects and financial consequences. What did they get? They got assurances about the air safety which was well known by the industry leaders to be safe a week later without the need to monitor. No focus was directed at indoor furniture or the the soil in the surrounding neighborhood. The mayor had to claim that it was really a long term process of monitoring the soil and water.
Norfolk Southern: A Formidable Example To The Rest Of The Industry
As hearings lead to fines and lawsuits, and eventually extremely costly regulations, the rest of the industry will pass on the costs to the consumer and cause yet another wave of inflation, all this as if the whole industry was as accident prone as Norfolk Southern. Indeed only 1% of train derailments are known to be caused by wheels overheating. Imagine how much it would cost the railroad companies to have to update all their trains no matter how old just for this regulation much less the rest of the package of regulations they will be handed by this Railway Safety Act. In many cases it already costs more to ride the train than to fly. The Democrats will use this one derailment to begin to increase the cost of running a railroad to the point of requiring significant taxpayer support. At that point, this administration will lay the groundwork for electric rails all designed to control fares for different people and track passengers individually. Some will travel free while others will pay exorbitant fares all at the discretion of unelected federal officials. That cost will remain astronomical and increase everyone’s taxes a lot regardless of whether you ever step foot onto a train. This will be another significant cause of the further impoverishment of the people. They will have swayed public opinion, especially across the northeast and mid northwest, to support replacing diesel powered trains with electric powered ones. The Democrat Green New Deal utopian motive behind the desperate attempt to run the private railroads out of business is to economically force a significant sector of our population to travel on electric trains as opposed to carbon powered planes.
But wait! One derailment was not enough. There had to be 2 more derailments involving Norfolk Southern, one exactly a month later on March 5th just 200 miles form the first one in the same state of Ohio! The other, in Alabama on March 9th just hours before the CEO was to testify before Congress. What are the chances of the same railroad company experiencing this many train derailments all within about a month? According to the Bureau Of Train Statistics, there were 1,087 derailments in 2021, including the low speed fender benders that occur mostly in the train yards, roughly about 3 per day. About 10 to 20 per year involve hazardous material releases. Now, out of 700 railroads in the US, what are the chances that one company would have a major hazmat derailment followed by 2 other significant derailments in one month? A simple probability arrived at by 7th grade math would inform us that 1/700 railroads x x 1.67 hazmat derailments per/91 derailments per month = 0.0000262 or 1 out of 262 thousand. The chances of having another non-hazmat derailment within that month is 0.0000262 x 91 derailments/700 railroads = 0.00000341 or 1 out of 3.41 million. Now multiply times the probability that they occur in the same state. Undoubtedly you get the idea. It becomes logical to wonder whether these “accidents” were accidental at all. Many people are still not aware of how much money and resources the global elites are able to pour into a climate change opportunity. We may never know. The coincidental sequence of events and the democrat’s actions and inactions tell the story. A major railroad operating through one of the most definitive Trump supporting red states derails causing a major hazardous chemical release making national and international headlines just prior to CPAC in Washington DC is the quintessential gift to the democratic party that is desperate to substitute diesel railroads with electric ones. They are also out to increase the price of plastic, vinyl chloride being a basic chemical used its manufacture. Norfolk Southern would be the choicest railroad to make an example of to the rest of the industry. Coincidentally, it was audited by the SEC just months ago which determined that they were at risk for a major derailment soon! It may have been obvious to realize that the combination of the recent contract with the railroad workers union for more paid leave, newly imposed expensive regulations, and rising insurance costs due to these costly derailments, not to mention the civil lawsuits, would drive this company bankrupt, unless it caved to allowing the feds to usher in the transition to electric rail.
The United States has the largest freight rail system in the world, impacting two thirds of the national economy. Forcing railroad companies to install expensive equipment on their trains and rails all at the same time will definitely make a similar impact on our economy as does raising the price of gas. Forcing our rail industry to go electric will contribute just as much to rising inflation, and not make a dent in actual railway safety. It will only serve to transfer control over management and service to the federal government which is desperate for this kind of power and control.
The Unrecognized Political Motive
Ohio and towns like East Palestine has been a manufacturing blue collar champion with an overwhelming republican constituency, a state which has been known to set the political tone for presidential elections for decades. To establish a private company as prioritizing profits and lobbying over people and safety, at the same time making the impression that government regulation is the real answer for their protection, brings the prospect of flipping that constituency blue. If conservatives in East Palestine and towns like it are convinced that more regulation is the answer, it will truly catch wind across the country. On the other hand, I tend to regard the blue collar workers in the US as quite politically astute and intelligent enough to understand the selfish political motives of the current administration. Just as they wouldn’t want their own employers overburdened with regulatory costs that don’t improve the value of the company nor the value of its product or service, they will not appreciate this administration using their crisis to choke off the entire rail industry. Rather than to apply their increased profits, largely from a growing online purchasing public, toward real safety and efficiency, like adding newer freight cars to their fleet, they will have to retrofit old cars with new brakes. Rather than to invest in making tracks safer, they will have to install more sensors on existing tracks, which have nothing to do with the vast majority of derailments. I give the people of Ohio plenty of credit to understand how their political response will affect the rest of the country and care more about how to help a backbone industry to progress safely and economically so as to keep our standard of living from taking a nose dive.
References
- Norfolk Southern Railway Train Derailment with Subsequent Hazardous Material Release and Fires https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Pages/RRD23MR005.aspx
- S.576 – Railway Safety Act of 2023 https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/576/text?s=1&r=5
- Norfolk Southern determines ‘urgent railcar safety issue’ after loose wheels found on rail cars in second Ohio derailment https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/10/us/springfield-derailment-norfolk-southern-safety-issue/index.html
- Freight Rail in Your State https://www.aar.org/data-center/railroads-states/
- Norfolk Southern train derails in Alabama hours before CEO testifies before Congress https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/norfolk-southern-train-derails-alabama-hours-ceo-testifies-congress-rcna74183
- Freight Rail’s Economic Impact https://www.aar.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/AAR-Economic-Impact-Fact-Sheet.pdf
- How many train derailments have there been in the US in 2023? https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/train-derailments-per-year-usa-b2294966.html
- Freight Rail Facts & Figures https://www.aar.org/facts-figures
- We’ve seen reports of three train derailments this month. Is this normal? https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2023/why-train-derailments-this-month/
- Last audit of Norfolk Southern noted issues that ‘may raise’ risk of train derailment https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-news/east-palestine-train-derailment/last-audit-of-norfolk-southern-noted-issues-that-may-raise-risk-of-train-derailment/#:~:text=EAST%20PALESTINE%2C%20Ohio%20%28WKBN%29%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Federal%20Railroad,2022%2C%20was%20conducted%20from%20January%20to%20May%202022.