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Icy-Neck-2422 t1_j92lr41 wrote

His company also brought you your toilet paper and underpants.

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Scary_Habit974 t1_j92xr71 wrote

I guess you’re okay with E. Palestine being collateral damage as long as you get to wipe your ass with Charmin?! Disgusting.

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End3rWi99in t1_j93f9m8 wrote

Unfortunately train derailments, like any other hazard/disaster cannot be reduced to 0%. The difference we can make is to implement the policies at a national level proposed during the Obama administration which standardizes EBS in freight rail, and invests in continuous improvements to aging rail lines. States themselves do also bear responsibility in ensuring rail infrastructure is held to at least minimal standards of safety, and parts of the line near East Palestine were well below standards. Screaming on the internet about one rich CEO is not how you fix this stuff though. It's how you get laughed at.

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Scary_Habit974 t1_j95zhcy wrote

What is laughable is making excuses for irresponsible railroad operators. These companies could make all the necessary operating and infrastructure improvements without a policy change if they wanted to. They won't because they are greedy and would rather spend $ with the lobbyists. Blaming the states without considering that it is the operators doing the MoW work just shows your ignorance.

You can't possibly think setting a fire to hazardous material and let it burn for days is the ONLY way to start cleaning up the mess from the derailment??!

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Icy-Neck-2422 t1_j92y4ef wrote

Charmin is too fancy and doesn't offer the grittiness my tender bits required.

It's Aldi TP for me.

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Cersad t1_j92w4xa wrote

Which could have just as easily been done if they had actually used appropriate safety measures and were not trying to cut costs by shipping vinyl chloride without hazardous materials documentation.

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Pyroechidna1 t1_j94tlq1 wrote

What documentation was missing?

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Cersad t1_j978jbc wrote

All of it.

The shipment was not shipped under any sort of hazardous cargo protocol, as I understand it.

Industrial disasters are invariably a result of human choice. We know enough about natural conditions to plan around them.

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Pyroechidna1 t1_j979o70 wrote

You’re going to have to be more specific. Hazardous materials are mixed into general manifest trains every day. Information about the materials is included with the train orders. If there is a special “hazardous cargo protocol” that should have applied here, then tell us what that is.

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Cersad t1_j97b6om wrote

Your second sentence describes the exact problem. In a lab, every damned chemical you use is documented. Apparently none of that was available from this train: First responders reportedly didn't know what substance was on the train, and that was coupled with the wheels and brakes overheating causing a clear risk of ignition.

The entire shit sandwich seems to have come about from negligence, both of maintenance of the rail cars and from how they loaded these substances slapdash in the train.

I'd argue this clearly shows a need for tighter regulatory requirements on the trains, but I'm also interested to see the reports from the final investigation when the facts become more verifiable.

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Pyroechidna1 t1_j97mwye wrote

Hot boxes (the term of art for failed wheel bearings) have been a hazard on the railroad since forever, which is why there are hot box detectors spaced in intervals along the line.

There was nothing “slapdash” about how these materials were included in the makeup of the train, it was a manifest train like any other that runs around the country every day. Watch your local manifests and see which UN placards you can spot. Hazardous tank cars have a placard, a stencil, and an emergency phone number on them.

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Cersad t1_j97vniu wrote

You argue it's not slapdash and happens every day, but we wouldn't be discussing it if it weren't a problem.

I think you're dodging the point: current rail standards and practices are evidently insufficient to ensure the safety of the surrounding people and environment.

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JaesopPop t1_j930qb0 wrote

We all know you can’t do that without the occasional ecological crisis, right?

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