Ohio train derailment & chemical leak

[White Out 403]

https://www.mediamatters.org/cable-n...nored-industry

Here's an article detailing the lack of coverage. Maybe you're more qualified than media matters?

[jayswin]

Is it really conspiracy anymore that corporate interests have a large hand in corporate owned media in the US and that something like this would be downplayed?

[FormerPresJamesTaylor]

Isn't WhiteOut the guy who Steven Crowder stolen ballot videos the night of the last American election?

Would be nice to see some news in this thread, instead of the typical dummies saying dumb ####

[Faust]

‘We just need answers’: distrust grows in Ohio town after toxic train derailment:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...oxic-chemicals

[White Out 403]

Originally Posted by FormerPresJamesTaylor

Isn't WhiteOut the guy who Steven Crowder stolen ballot videos the night of the last American election?

Would be nice to see some news in this thread, instead of the typical dummies saying dumb ####

What?

Let me try and answer the question if you're asking, did I post a video about Steven Crowder and stolen ballots. No. That is ludicrous, and you're silly to even suggest it. Steven Crowder is an idiot.

Gaslighting ****.

[Faust]

EPA orders rail company to clean up contaminated Ohio derailment site:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ohio-t...ered-1.6755181

[Tsawwassen]

Another explosion in the state of Ohio, this one near Cleveland at a manufacturing metal plant.
Molten metal coming down in the area. Yikes. One person died and many injured.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...land-rcna71518
https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/...o/69924990007/

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Faust

EPA orders rail company to clean up contaminated Ohio derailment site:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ohio-t...ered-1.6755181

lol. sure they will.

[nik-]

Impending bankruptcy, surprising everyone!

[Azure]

Interesting how people are so quick to blame the rail companies for their neglect, political lobbying to reduce safety regulation, etc, etc, but simply can't accept the fact that media companies who are often beholden to the same shareholders as the rail companies are not going to be inclined to go report on something like this if said shareholders are going to tell them to back off.

I mean its pretty clear here that a lot of what came out in regards to this story was told by independent sources. It took quite a while until it got more attention, and even logger for the feds and the EPA to get seriously involved.

[calgarygeologist]

Stupid question but why is East Palestine not pronounced the same way as Palestine in the Middle East?

[timun]

Ohio towns named after places elsewhere have weird pronunciations...

Cairo = "care-oh"
Lima = "lye-mah" (EDIT: I suppose it's not that weird if you're thinking about the bean, rather than Peru)
Louisville = "lewis-ville"
Medina = "muh-dye-nuh"
Versailles = "ver-sayles"

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Azure

Interesting how people are so quick to blame the rail companies for their neglect, political lobbying to reduce safety regulation, etc, etc, but simply can't accept the fact that media companies who are often beholden to the same shareholders as the rail companies are not going to be inclined to go report on something like this if said shareholders are going to tell them to back off.

I mean its pretty clear here that a lot of what came out in regards to this story was told by independent sources. It took quite a while until it got more attention, and even logger for the feds and the EPA to get seriously involved.

I won’t comment on the media but the EPA has been involved since day 1.

https://www.epa.gov/oh/previous-dail...gency-response

[Delthefunky]

Originally Posted by Azure

Interesting how people are so quick to blame the rail companies for their neglect, political lobbying to reduce safety regulation, etc, etc, but simply can't accept the fact that media companies who are often beholden to the same shareholders as the rail companies are not going to be inclined to go report on something like this if said shareholders are going to tell them to back off.

I mean its pretty clear here that a lot of what came out in regards to this story was told by independent sources. It took quite a while until it got more attention, and even logger for the feds and the EPA to get seriously involved.

I'm a locomotive engineer for one of the top 2 Canadian railways, I won't say which one because they have teams of people scouring the internet dedicated to keeping their image squeaky clean. I haven't been following the story or this thread at all, because this is no surprise to me. The way the railways are regulated in both countries these things are just bound to happen. The public would be shocked to find out how often trains derail. In one form or another I would guess cars come off the tracks every few days somewhere in the country, if not every day. My subdivision has seen some nasty ones, but unless there's flames and they're visible from the side of the road, then no one outside the railway ever knows about it. But it's just a matter of time before a hazardous goods train goes off the rails and dumps some nasty stuff into a river. I will say that it blows my mind that they use trains to transport oil instead of a pipeline. The biggest issue imo is work rest rules which the government has been dragging their feet on in implementing since i started. I can only say that working on 4 hours sleep over a 24 hour period is completely normal, and just part of the job. I may get off rest at 8 in the morning, thinking I'm going out right away, and my phone doesn't ring until 2200 that night. Now I'm expected to still be fully rested, and drive a train for 10 hours. Then I can book 8 hours rest away from home (or if im so inclined, i can book no rest, because i can work 18 hours over a 24 hr period), and I might have to still wait another 10 hours and take a train over night again. My point is that the company (all of them) doesn't care. There really is no "schedule". It's a very obvious problem and one that the company and the government pretends isn't. There was an accident 2 years ago where the conductor and engineer were asleep and side swiped another train coming out of the siding at 15mph because they forgot they had to stop. Luckily no one was killed, and the cars that derailed weren't hazardous.

The other problem is track maintenance. They make more and more cuts every year for short term gains, completely ignoring the long term picture. The goal is to compound the stock, nothing else. Its like treliving spending our draft picks on a last ditch attempt to save his job, haha. Well, we've had one curve on our subdivision that has derailed 4 trains the last 3 years, like 40 cars on the ground with units and everything. Again, lucky it wasn't oil or vinyl chloride, but it's just a game of roulette.

Railways operate like it's still the 1800's, and they get away with it because they have a complete monopoly. They are incredibly inefficient (operationally), but it doesn't matter because there's no entrepreneur out there whose going to finance a new cross country track, and the government wouldn't allow it anyway. Here's a fun fact, just on our subdivision, trains run out of fuel on a weekly basis. The train usually has to be pushed by another train to a point they can get a fuel truck to. Probably a 5 hr delay to maybe 5 trains that are waiting behind and in front of, waste of several crews, not to mention mechanical issues I.e. fuel pumps, dirty fuel, oiling, etc. It's something so simple to fix.

Anyways, long story short, imo it's both a government problem and a corporate problem. Everyone will bury their head in the sand and pretend they don't realize there's a problem until the next lac megantic happens, then the government will slap the companies on the wrist, and they'll make some subtle changes that least effect their bottom line. Deep down the railways know they have the government by the balls, because shutting down CN or CP for a period of time has a massive effect on the entire economy. They couldn't do it.

[Azure]

I have a friend who actually works in rail cleanup, and he isn't even allowed to take pictures of what he cleans up. Some of the stories he tells are wild.

His views are pretty much just like yours. Rail companies don't give a ####, and the government cares even less.

Interestingly enough, both care very much about derailments becoming public info and making sure the general public doesn't know how risky the rails are to begin with, which adds to your point about transporting oil via rail and not pipelines is stupid.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by GGG

I won’t comment on the media but the EPA has been involved since day 1.

https://www.epa.gov/oh/previous-dail...gency-response

Just like they were involved in Flint, and many other places.

The damage is done. Years from now we'll read about elevated cancer levels.

Nobody cares, and nobody will be held responsible.
The EPA is controlled by corporate America. Has been for many years.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Azure

Just like they were involved in Flint, and many other places.

The damage is done. Years from now we'll read about elevated cancer levels.

Nobody cares, and nobody will be held responsible.
The EPA is controlled by corporate America. Has been for many years.

You know that they've spent 400 million and replaced like 10000 water lines in Flint right?

[Azure]

Originally Posted by nik-

You know that they've spent 400 million and replaced like 10000 water lines in Flint right?

Again, the damage is done. Over 15k kids were exposed to lead poisoning. I know you well enough as a poster to know that you're not okay with that at all, even if they spent $400 million trying to fix it.

Sure, after the fact they MAY, or may not try to fix the original issue.
But the whole point of regulations and holding corporations accountable is to PREVENT problems. Not fix them afterwards.

Perfect example with this derailment.

I think the general public would be shocked if they honestly knew how many derailments are that cost billions of dollars in damage and cleanup fees, nevermind the environmental damage. This has gotten worse since our government has decided that pipelines are not politically expedient to their voting base and the result has been more oil being shipped on rail which has further strained the entire system.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Originally Posted by timun

Ohio towns named after places elsewhere have weird pronunciations...

Cairo = "care-oh"
Lima = "lye-mah" (EDIT: I suppose it's not that weird if you're thinking about the bean, rather than Peru)
Louisville = "lewis-ville"
Medina = "muh-dye-nuh"
Versailles = "ver-sayles"

What's with Medina, Cairo and Palestine?

Lol did they look at an atlas and start borrowing names of prominent religious/cultural centers in the middle east?

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Azure

Just like they were involved in Flint, and many other places.

The damage is done. Years from now we'll read about elevated cancer levels.

Nobody cares, and nobody will be held responsible.
The EPA is controlled by corporate America. Has been for many years.

The EPA doesn’t regulate trains though. They regulate particulate and things like Nox coming out of the locomotives. I’m not sure what specific action you would have liked the EPA to take here? They only could respond after the spill in this case.

I agree the EPA failed to act in flint.