Derailed train in Ohio & giant cloud of polyvinyl chloride

[Mr.Bishie]

Give it up ffs.

 

[existentialist]

nuance is wasted on you right?

He thinks "shades of grey" refers to a smutty book

 

[agricola]

That first article really illustrates how corporate greed and lobbying influence made it almost a matter of time for something like this to happen. Just one bit:

As an aside it is approaching the ten year anniversary of the Lac-Magantic disaster, caused in a large part by the same things as this.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I spend a fair bit of my time going through hazard sheets for various chemicals but I've never yet encountered anything described as a 'megatoxin'.

As for turning 'chernobyl' into a verb, I'd say that's in pretty poor taste. There is a way to talk about these things without resorting to this kind of hyperbolic nonsense.

 

[platinumsage]

I spend a fair bit of my time going through hazard sheets for various chemicals but I've never yet encountered anything described as a 'megatoxin'.

As for turning 'chernobyl' into a verb, I'd say that's in pretty poor taste. There is a way to talk about these things without resorting to this kind of hyperbolic nonsense.

Yes, I expect better from UAE Exotic Falconry & Finance, postman wookie bought a saturn swp, and Just Some Fucker.

 

[NoXion]

Yes, I expect better from UAE Exotic Falconry & Finance, postman wookie bought a saturn swp, and Just Some Fucker.

It's only the UAE guy who said those things though.

 

[maomao]

As for turning 'chernobyl' into a verb, I'd say that's in pretty poor taste. There is a way to talk about these things without resorting to this kind of hyperbolic nonsense.

Why in poor taste? No-one's making fun of Chernobyl and, crucially, we know exactly what the writer means - long term environmental devastation of a large area with lasting threat to human life.

 

[two sheds]

Edit: apologies this seems to play automatically, not sure how to prevent that

Fucking hell the size of the fire, and effects on life



and the headline in case it gets deleted:

The massive explosion and poisoning of American citizens should be a much bigger story….why isn’t the media talking about Ohio more? What is going on?​

Loose Fit

 

[hitmouse]

"Norfork Southern and the other Class 1 railroads are seeking to boost profits by cutting crews. Trains that can stretch nearly a mile or more are often operated with just a two-person crew, who themselves are overworked and exhausted from being constantly on call. And the railroads want to even reduce this to single-person crews. Maintenance of ways crews are stretched thin and forced to put “bandaids” on problems which should be properly repaired. Much of the rail cars currently in use are decades old and are not regularly inspected."

Crews burn toxic chemicals from Ohio train crash in “controlled release”

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine warned that fumes released into the air from the venting operation “can be deadly if inhaled.” Officials designated a “red zone” around the site where people faced “grave danger of death” from breathing in the fumes.

www.wsws.org

"Among other things, the lawsuit says the railroad failed to maintain and inspect its tracks and rail cars, failed to provide appropriate employee training, and failed to reasonably warn the public. Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department coalition, said he worries the chances of a catastrophic derailment are increasing because major freight railroads have eliminated roughly one-third of their workers over the past six years. Companies have shifted to running fewer, longer trains and say they don’t need as many crews, mechanics and locomotives."

Ohio derailment that released toxic chemicals raises railroad safety questions

Rail unions believe the industry has gotten riskier in recent years after widespread job cuts left workers spread thin.

www.pbs.org

News supression in action!

Posting articles from the World Socialist Web Site as proof the media is covering something, fantastic work. I suppose this also means that the 82nd anniversary of the assassination of Leon Trotsky was a big story in the media?

I thought this would be a discussion about the environmental effects, the health effects, and the fact that trade unions ave been warning about such an event, the fact that railway workers have been banned from striking, the underfunding of maintenance, the lack of safety protocols, that maybe the cops probably shouldn't have blown the whole lot sky high - and why was a mainstream journalist roughed up and falsely arrested, and that there have been claims that this load was mis-identified in order to get it shifted on the cheap.

Yeah, I had been thinking about posting this on the Biden thread for that reason - the fact that rail unions/workers had been warning about safety, and wanted to strike over unsustainable workloads, and the Biden administration blocked them from being able to strike, is fucking unforgivable imo. Obviously we can't say for sure what caused the derailment, but at this point it certainly seems plausible that, for instance, staff fatigue might well have been an avoidable factor.

 

[A380]

Goverment report of a derailed train releasing a dangerous gas you say?

I'm off to camp out on:

 

[Pickman's model]

i'm prepared to admit i'm wrong about this being suppressed in the news but i still am pissed off about being accused of being a conspiraloon. I call out conspiraloons. I am not one.

No, I wasn't accusing you of that, as I say above very definite form in America for covering things up. E2a if I wanted to call you a 'loon believe me I wouldn't beat about the bush. But you're not, so I'm not

 

[Humberto]

Generous.

Norfolk Southern is giving $25,000 to an Ohio town where it caused a life-or-death evacuation

On Feb. 6, an apocalyptic plume of gas rose over the village of East Palestine, Ohio, blotting out the sky. Norfolk Southern, the US railway company responsible for the toxic spew of vinyl chloride, has now offered a $25,000 donation to assist the area’s nearly 5,000 residents who were ordered...

finance.yahoo.com

 

[Yossarian]

 

[hitmouse]

Fucking hell, it has not been a good few weeks for the American rail industry:

Houston-area crash between truck, Union Pacific train kills driver, derails 20-plus rail cars | Houston Public Media

The cargo on the train included some hazardous materials, prompting Union Pacific to monitor air quality at the site of the crash, according to the Splendora Police Department.

www.houstonpublicmedia.org

Officials clean up train derailment in Enoree

Stay with FOX Carolina as we work to learn more.

www.whsv.com

Can't help thinking that maybe telling train drivers that they can't call in sick was perhaps a bad idea?

 

[hitmouse]

Unicorn Riot coverage:

'Like the Doors of Hell Were Open': East Palestine Train Disaster Casts Toxic Cloud Over Future of OH/PA Region - UNICORN RIOT

Vinyl Chloride & Byproducts like Phosgene Risk Damaging Wide Area

unicornriot.ninja

 

[hitmouse]

Really recommend that Unicorn Riot article for serious indepth coverage of what happened. Also links to this press release from Railroad Workers United:

Press Release: Fiery Ohio Train Wreck the Result of "PSR"

  Press Release from Railroad Workers United     View this Email as a Webpage Press Release Date: Tuesday, February 7th, 2023 For Immediate Release For More Information, Please Contact: WASHINGTON, DC

myemail.constantcontact.com

 

[petee]

 

[two sheds]

Screenshot of a video from reddit about the state of the train lines in Ohio "after years of neglect" screenshot in case it's removed.

 

[NoXion]

Honestly it's a miracle that catastrophic derailments don't happen more often. That is genuinely shocking. How can anyone look at that shit and think it's OK?

 

[Nylock]

Because sadly, it seems, the only things out there that genuinely have any rights are corporations, money and guns. All other rights appear to be either entirely negotiable or utterly subservient to the 2nd.

 

[two sheds]

One of the comments on that reddit thread said that the wooden sleepers had rotted away leaving the tracks lying on the ground. Another noted that the compensation for railway accidents had been limited in the US, making it profitable for the companies to just not bother with maintenance.

 

[krtek a houby]

Where is the state of emergency? Interesting short article here

Ohio is facing a chemical disaster. Biden must declare a state of emergency | Steven Donziger

Norfolk’s leadership bailed out of a townhall meeting this week, blaming security risks, and has refused to face residents to answer questions.

That’s certainly cowardice. But it is also a function of the fact that industry does not respect the power of government to regulate it. Government is supposed to protect us from the excesses of industry; instead it often acts like its partner.

If the consequences of not attending had included a sufficient threat to his bottom line, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw – who earns a reported $4.5m a year – probably would have been at the town hall. And if the government had been doing its job in the first place, there is a good chance this accident would not have happened. During the Trump administration, Norfolk successfully lobbied to repeal a safety rule requiring new electronic brakes. The train was also dangerously long – with only two crew members, and a trainee, supervising its 1.7-mile length.

 

[Jennaonthebeach]

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[two sheds]

Interesting, ta, and you'd fucking hope so. Still illustrative though that with the state of those tracks their solution is not to repair them but to limit what it carries. I wouldn't fancy being the driver whatever speed it was doing.

 

[NoXion]

There was a person on twitter the other day who seemed to be an expert on the current situation regarding US railways who said that this was not representative, that it is a particularly bad stretch that was only allowed to carry grain and that the train was only doing a couple of mph over that stretch of line. Also that it was closed for years, and originally built on a swamp. If I see the thread again I'll post it up.

Sounds like a bunch of excuses to be honest. Call me a fusspot, but I don't think that any rail line that's actually being used for transporting anything should look like that.

 

[Jennaonthebeach]

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[Jennaonthebeach]

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[two sheds]

yep I did think of that - if the sleepers have rotted away that's a long long time they've not tried to repair it though. It should be government financed of course but not the Murican way.

 

[Nylock]

I did think that. They've done what they can to make it safe for the public, but the driver is still at risk. On the other hand, it was pointed out that the alternative would be to close it and carry grain by trucks again and all the inherent risks with that.

The other alternative is to temp close it, reinforce the trackbed, replace the old sleepers with new concrete ones and re-lay the track. Might take a while depending on how much needs replacement but normal service would resume with the added bonus of the freight train being able to go faster than walking pace...

 

[Jennaonthebeach]

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