BUT TRUMP.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg blamed the toxic Ohio train derailment on rollbacks in regulations during President Donald Trump’s administration.
Man, the left and Democrats *pounced* on that idea!
Except…it’s a lie. Even The Washington Post‘s fact-checker Glenn Kessler admitted the regulations didn’t cause the derailment due to a thing called electronically controlled pneumatic brakes.
Kessler relied on the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) preliminary report.
The NTSB found that the Norfolk Southern crew received an alarm from the hot-bearing detector to slow down and examine a hot axle. The train engineer tried to slow down and stop the train. However:
After the train stopped, the crew observed fire and smoke and notified the Cleveland East dispatcher of a possible derailment. With dispatcher authorization, the crew applied handbrakes to the two railcars at the head of the train, uncoupled the head-end locomotives, and moved the locomotives about 1 mile from the uncoupled railcars. Responders arrived at the derailment site and began response efforts.
NTSB investigators identified and examined the first railcar to derail, the 23rd railcar in the consist. Surveillance video from a local residence showed what appeared to be a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment. The wheel bearing and affected wheelset have been collected as evidence and will be examined by the NTSB. The vinyl chloride tank car top fittings, including the relief valves, were also removed and examined by the NTSB on scene. The top fittings will be shipped to Texas for testing under the direction of the NTSB.
In 2017. the administration repealed a rule requiring “ECP brakes on ‘high hazard’ trains that carry flammable hazardous materials” due to cost concerns.
Biden’s administration, which took control in January 2021, hasn’t reinstated the rule.
Then again, Buttigieg probably doesn’t know his job description or what he’s supposed to do.
Nope:
The train was not equipped with ECP brakes; instead its locomotive used dynamic braking — electric traction motors acting as generators, which slow the train and dissipate mechanical energy as heat. When the crew received the alert about the overheated wheel bearing and engaged the dynamic brake, an automatic emergency brake application kicked in to stop the train, the NTSB said. That’s a full application of a train’s main air brakes that takes place when the train senses that air-brake hoses between rail cars have been disconnected — indicating the train had already derailed.
The Obama administration had a rule requiring a two-person crew with only one person after a crash.
Trump’s administration repealed the rule in 2019. But the Ohio train had a two-person crew, which means the Biden administration cannot use this repeal against Trump.
Trump’s administration also “revised minimum safety requirements for railroad track.” The NTSB found no problems in its investigation.
Trump’s administration “adopted weaker standards for regulating emissions of ethylene oxide,” which is one of the toxic chemicals spilled in the crash. But the rule is all about emissions, “not the synthetic chemical.”
I completely missed this. Someone should alert Buttigieg and those at DOT to stop lying.
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