Schumer Blames Trump for Palestine Train Accident
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer on Monday blamed the train-derailment disaster that shook up a rural Ohio town earlier this month on former president Trump’s regulatory rollbacks.
In 2017, “the Trump administration repealed requirements for an electronic braking system because, according to them, the safety benefits were not worth the cost,” Schumer told the chamber. “I think the people of East Palestine now know that analysis was wrong and that they’re suffering the consequences of rail companies putting profits over people.”
On February 3, the partial derailment of a long freight train owned by Norfolk Southern carrying hazardous materials sparked a blaze, releasing the toxins into the area and forcing evacuations of residents nearby. The Biden administration, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, did not respond to the incident for many days.
The cause of the accident has not yet been determined. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating and is expected to release a preliminary report in about a month.
“You don’t need to be an expert to see that when companies prioritize profits over safety, when they loosen safety rules, lay off thousands of workers, and spend more money on stock buy backs then on preventing accidents, you’re flirting with disaster,” Schumer added. “It is so typical of Donald Trump.”
After the derailment, Norfolk Southern set up an assistance center at a nearby church, distributing over $1 million to over 700 families to help pay for lodging and supplies, National Review‘s Dominic Pino noted. It also donated large sums of money to the recovery effort, including $220,000 to the East Palestine Fire Department and $25,000 to the Ohio Red Cross. The company is working with authorities to conduct environmental monitoring.
A week ago, Buttigieg also pinned part of the blame for the derailment on Trump.
“We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe,” Buttigieg said. “And of course, I’m always ready to work with Congress on furthering (or in some cases, restoring) our capacity to address rail safety issues.”
In 2018, Trump’s Department of Transportation repealed a 2015 rule mandating that trains hauling highly flammable crude oil be equipped with special brakes that stop all rail cars simultaneously. The advanced brakes were designed also to keep more tank cars on the track in the event that a derailment occurs.
