The Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, is looking to deflect responsibility for the latest train derailment in Ohio.
Instead of stepping up and claiming some responsibility for what happened there, Buttigieg has laid the blame on the private companies operating those trains.
Fox News reports that Buttigieg has put some issues such as cost-cutting, a cut to safety standards, and other issues that might be to blame for the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Profit and expediency must never outweigh the safety of the American people, said Secretary Buttigieg. We at USDOT are doing everything in our power to improve rail safety, and we insist that the rail industry do the same while inviting Congress to work with us to raise the bar.
This came with a statement from the Department of Transportation calling for a three-pronged push to hold the freight rail industry accountable and improve safety.. This push comes with a move by the DOT to insist on adopting safer tank cars, new inspection technologies, and protection for workers in unsafe conditions.
Secretary Buttigieg recently sent a letter to the CEO of Norfolk Southern that accused the industry of trying to end government efforts to regulate the industry.
Buttigieg wrote the following: Rather than support these efforts to improve rail safety, Norfolk Southern and other rail companies spent millions of dollars in the courts and lobbying members of Congress to oppose common-sense safety regulations, stopping some entirely and reducing the scope of others.
This announcement comes days after Republican Senators sent Buttigieg a letter asking if the 150-car Norfolk Southern freight train was adequately staffed and if Biden Administration policies might have caused staffing issues.
The letter from Senators J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio stated:
Current and former rail workers, industry observers, and reform advocates have pointed to precision-scheduled railroading (PSR), by which rail companies such as Norfolk Southern increase efficiency and drive down costs by moving more freight with fewer workers, as a potential contributor to the accident.
and
We have voiced concerns with PSR, as well as with this administrations prioritizing of efficiency over resilience in its national infrastructure and transportation systems.
They were trying to get Buttigieg and the White House in general to take responsibility for the issues related to the derailment of this train. He wouldnt budge on this, though.
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