The second accident in a month of a freight in Ohio fuels the debate on rail safety in the US

Several wagons of the Norfolk Southern train, after derailing this Saturday in Springfield (Ohio). Bill Lackey (AP)

The derailment of two trains of the private company Norfolk Southern in the State of Ohio in just over a month confirms the determination of President Joe Biden to carry out his ambitious infrastructure plan, one of the emblems of his term.

Twenty wagons of a freight train made up of 212, most of them empty, left the track this Saturday in Springfield, northeast of Cincinnati, without causing casualties or leaking toxic materials, as happened in the incident of the past 3 February in East Palestine, about 300 kilometers northeast of Springfield.

Then, the derailment of another train from the same company sent millions of kilos of toxic chemicals into the environment and forced the evacuation of thousands of people.

The first event demonstrated the outdated nature of the railway line, which is also privately owned in the affected section.

A part of the cargo immediately caught fire.

Three days later, authorities released and burned additional material from five tank cars, and the fire released high levels of harmful chemicals into the air, though the US Environmental Protection Agency said the contamination was not severe enough to cause long-term health damage.

In the aftermath of the East Palestine disaster, the far-right has propagated wild

theories about the alleged Democratic attempt to wipe out the majority white working-class population in East Palestine.

Host Tucker Carlson suggested the reason for the crash was because East Palestine is a rural white community, while another Fox News colleague argued that the Biden administration is "dumping toxic chemicals on poor white people."

The company has not provided any hypothesis about the incident on Saturday.

Norfolk Southern said in an emailed statement that the derailment occurred as the train was heading south near Springfield.

“There are no hazardous materials involved and no injuries have been reported,” the company explained.

"Our crews are en route to the site to begin cleanup operations."

Clark County authorities urged residents within 300 meters of the tracks to remain in their homes as a precaution until the presence of toxic materials was ruled out.

The Norfolk Southern statement said power outages occurred in the area due to downed power lines from the accident, and there was no estimation of how long it would take for power to be restored.

Private ownership, no security measures

Speaking to

ABC's

Brown said he was not satisfied with the company's response and questioned whether the risk of contamination was ruled out so soon, since traces of previously transported toxic products could remain in the wagons.

“The railways have to answer a lot of questions and they haven't done it very well,” he said.

As the Nobel Prize winner in Economics Paul Krugman recalled in a recent article, the East Palestine incident was carried out "by a private sector railway company, which circulated on privately owned tracks, and which lobbied against stricter safety regulations".

The existence of obsolete transport infrastructures, which also had such an influence on the disruption of supply chains last year, and the frustrated initiatives to strengthen security in the rail transport of hazardous materials by the Barack Obama Administration -later reversed by Donald Trump - contribute to making rail freight transport a risky activity.

freight

to be equipped with electronically controlled air brakes by 2023. Even if the rule had remained in effect, it would not have applied to the Norfolk Southern train that derailed in East Palestine, because it was not classified as a high-risk freight train, according to the data verification portal PolitiFact.

Last month, he recalled a White House statement issued this Friday, "Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned Norfolk Southern of the need to carry out security reforms and called for an end to the 'vigorous resistance' from the rail sector to increased safety measures, which in the past has included lobbying and litigation to end common sense rail safety reforms”.

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