WASHINGTON — A second freight prepare derailment in Ohio inside a month is giving new impetus for rail security laws in Congress, as Democrats and Republicans put together to grill Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw when he testifies to a Senate committee Thursday.
“The big railroads have weakened safety rules or resisted safety rules for years,” Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown mentioned on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “But you’d think a disaster that happened in East Palestine would have gotten their attention.”
Saturday’s prepare derailment occurred exterior Springfield, Ohio — about 180 miles west of East Palestine, the place a derailment final month spilled poisonous chemical compounds into the agricultural neighborhood alongside the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.
Initial experiences point out that there have been no hazardous supplies spilled within the Springfield incident, and officers shortly lifted a shelter-in-place order. But Brown mentioned he needs to know if there have been any residual contaminants left within the 20 principally empty prepare automobiles that went off observe.
“The railroad’s got a lot of questions they’ve got to answer and they really haven’t done it very well yet,” he mentioned.
Brown is the lead sponsor of a rail security invoice that will require extra disclosure of hazardous supplies traversing states, inspections of wheel bearings and mandate minimal crew sizes. And it might improve penalties for violations.
Brown’s invoice has co-sponsors from throughout the political spectrum, together with Republicans J.D. Vance of Ohio, Marco Rubio of Florida and Josh Hawley of Missouri in addition to Democrats Bob Casey and John Fetterman of neighboring Pennsylvania.
Ohio Republican Rep. Mike Turner, who represents the world round Saturday’s derailment, added his personal frustration with the rail trade, calling the spate of Ohio derailments — now 4 within the final 5 months — “outrageous.”
“What we’ve seen, you know, recently with the risk to communities is unacceptable,” he mentioned on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “And the fact that we’re having derailment after derailment shows really the lack of investment, the disinvestment, in our infrastructure, and that needs to change.”
Still, some ideological rifts have been obvious. Brown blamed the derailments partly on inventory buybacks, CEO pay and workforce reductions — points unlikely to get settlement from Republicans.
Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia, mentioned opposition to pipelines had put extra stress on the rail system. “Pipelines would help alleviate a lot of this problem with the oil that we need in our country,” he mentioned on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
And Vance advised Fox News on Friday that makes an attempt guilty President Donald Trump’s administration — which killed a prepare braking rule designed to forestall incidents just like the one in East Palestine — are “complete partisan hackery.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”