AMAC Exclusive – By Andrew Abbott
Just over one month after the devastating train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, another train left the tracks in the west central part of the state Saturday evening, prompting temporary shelter-in-place orders for residents within 1,000 feet of the overturned train cars. While the crash fortunately resulted in no injuries and no evidence of hazardous materials spilling into the environment, it was yet more evidence of the fragile state of America’s infrastructure.
A 212-car freight train was traveling southbound in Clark County around 5 pm on Saturday when 28 cars went off the tracks near the city of Springfield. Although several of the cars that derailed had trace amounts of diesel exhaust fluid and polyacrylamide water solution, they were empty at the time of the crash. A statement from the Clark County Emergency Management Agency said that “the Clark County Hazmat team and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency each independently examined the crash site and verified there was no evidence of spillage at the site.”
The crash follows another derailment 200 miles northeast in East Palestine, Ohio, on February 3 that did send toxic chemicals pouring into the air and waterways. More than a month later, many residents are still unsure if the air they are breathing or the water they are drinking is safe after a haphazard response by both the state and federal government.
Both crashes have placed renewed scrutiny on the safety of America’s rail system and the officials responsible for it – namely, President Joe Biden and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. The White House has made hardly any mention of the East Palestine disaster, with Biden traveling to Ukraine instead of Ohio in the wake of the derailment. Buttigieg, meanwhile, appeared at first dismissive and then paralyzed by the crisis, only traveling to the site after a visit from former President Donald Trump, who publicly shamed Biden and the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, for their inaction.
In total, there were 1,164 train derailments in 2022 – a figure that is not unusually high for recent years, but is a 6.3 percent increase over the 1,095 derailments in 2021. Yet as the Department of Transportation remains preoccupied with various schemes to advance “equity” and “racial justice” rather than things like rail safety, many Americans are understandably wondering why Buttigieg and the White House are not more focused on reducing the number of accidents – particularly after Congress passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package ostensibly aimed at addressing that very thing last year.
It’s not just the U.S. rail system that appears on the verge of collapse, either. Last week, Politico released a startling new study revealing that near-collisions involving commercial planes in the U.S. have skyrocketed this year. According to the report, there have been more “near collisions” in the first two months of 2023 than in the last five years combined.
The report notes that “from 2018 to 2022, the data shows just three incidents that occurred in the U.S. in which commercial passenger or cargo planes ‘narrowly avoided’ crashing into each other.” Already this year, there have been four near-misses. These incidents have left government officials scrambling to explain how, in 2023, America is struggling to operate a system it pioneered and perfected.
Much of the scrutiny has been levied at the Federal Aviation Administration, another entity under the direct control of Secretary Buttigieg that was once considered the “gold standard” for safety but has seen its reputation tarnished in recent years.
On January 11, the agency grounded all flights nationwide for two hours after an outage of its Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system – the first such stoppage since 9/11. Again, Buttigieg was missing in action. Although he later pinned the blame on outdated software, he has provided no answers for what is being done to prevent such an outage moving forward. The fiasco came less than a month after Southwest Airlines was forced to scrap 16,500 flights during the Christmas season, leaving tens of thousands of American passengers spending the holidays trapped at airports.
The airline industry has also fallen victim to the same woke policies and government failures as the rail industry. After vaccine mandates led to many pilots being fired or quitting, some airlines are reducing minimum requirements for new pilots. Other airlines have adopted woke hiring policies for pilots, replacing merit and ability with race and gender quotas. Under Buttigieg, the FAA has touted its commitment to “equity” while safety standards have lagged.
Public survey data shows that Americans are noticing that the nation’s infrastructure is crumbling. A 2021 poll found that 79 percent of all Americans feel the country is “falling apart.” Supply chain crunches and widespread shortages of goods in 2022 have likely only added to that perception.
Meanwhile, Democrats remain fixated on whether roads are “racist” or whether there are too many white construction workers. Until those priorities change – or until leaders focused on pragmatic solutions rather than identity politics are put in charge – Americans are likely to continue suffering the consequences of outdated and unsafe infrastructure.
Andrew Abbott is the pen name of a writer and public affairs consultant with over a decade of experience in DC at the intersection of politics and culture.
Imagine the improvements if all that proxy war money were earmarked for Americans first. Nevermind fixing anything here, WW3 will set future priorities.
Can we survey ALL RR tracks in the US?
Must remedy
Do a RR Census to Repair RR System
Or suffer more or worse ahead
Well, the Democrats rammed through a bloated $1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure bill with help from McConnell and about 18 other RINOs in the Senate in 2021. While only about 19 percent of the massive bill was actual infrastructure, the rest being basically a laundry list of new “progressive” programs, new regulations and pork barrel projects, there were indeed billions upon billions in it for railroad and airport improvements. So, the money is there for all sorts of things related to real infrastructure. Now one might rightfully ask why there aren’t dozens, if not hundreds of new infrastructure projects being announced or already started all across the country. Well, that is because the money is being handed out on a political basis, NOT a needs basis. Welcome to “Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”.
As for why both Dementia Joe and Mayor Pete are doing such a lousy job, do you really need to keep asking the same question over and over again when it has been answered already? No one in the Biden administration is capable of doing their jobs properly, because none of them have any real qualifications to hold the current positions they do. We have another 2 years of this nonsense to live through on the outside chance we can regain control of our country. That is the choice the American people made to allow this farce to continue. So, don’t expect any of the member of the Biden administration or the Democrat Party in general to radically (no pun intended) change course from what they have been doing to date.
RR Solutions:
Update RR System
Modernize
Drones survey RR bed & tracks
Replace signage
X Train RR Crews
Use sensors to sniff Toxins on route
Local Hazmat Teams on routes
Color code cargo cars carrying Toxins IE Yellow, Red, Orange, White
X Train RR Yard Crews
We have trains running off the rails, airplanes being grounded and a crumbling infrastructure but, by golly, we have perversity, uhh, I mean “diversity” in high cabinet positions. Buttgiggle is in waaay over his head. (As an aside the health secretary is a real piece of work too)
Seems to me Obama and his handlers have their fingerprints all over this administration and is pulling some of the strings behind the scene.
With the weak push back from the Republicans and the lackluster protest actions from the grass roots public, we’re in trouble. We’ll never survive two more years. (Ancient Rome ring a bell?)
Moreover, a special nod to Michael J’s comment below.
Every year in every town, every city and nationally we give specific money through our taxes for infrastructure. Where does that money go? All we hear is it is not there. If someone truly wants to help this country then follow the money.
I guess they consider Hispanics to be white, because that’s what construction workers are here in Texas. They work on houses, roads, and everything else in the industry and I hardly see any white people. I see every other people of the rainbow, but rarely whites in Texas or New Mexico for that matter.
This is the kind of quality you can expect when they hire based solely on gender and/or levels of perversion. buttegag isn’t qualified to be a crossing guard.
It’s a good thing that infrastructure bill passed and we’ll soon be seeing that money going to fix our broken infrastructure. Oh, wait, they just called that bill an infrastructure bill. It was really a bill to give money to climate alarmists and make sure trannies can do drag shows in elementary schools.
This is what equity gets you when used instead of a merit based system.
All is going according to the plan of the demo/globalist party and the WEF. Destroy America’s infrastructure, education, military, financial structure, & Christianity. Then build back socialist.
What happened to all the money earmarked for infrastructure that was included in the trillion dollar bills passed in the last two years? Never mind, I know the answer…
The advantage of reading about the Civil War; is to readily see that this era is beginning to look less functional! Lincoln got to the point he had to FIRE just a ‘few’ people. A few generals who didn’t seem to be able to move their bootie. Enter today’s Secretary of Transportation: At the inception of his employment; he should have done an overall assessment of ALL MODES of transportation. When the recent ‘dysfunctional’ occurrences cropped up; he should have been on the spot analyzing the situation. He should have elicited forensic experts in all federal departments; (all of this after making sure that the safety of the public had been addressed.) Even with the most fundamental understanding of what the job of Secretary of Transportation entails; its pretty clear to see that a high school student might be able to do a better job; (or a kindergartener.) Its beginning to look a lot like some kind of cold to hot to sizzling war everywhere you go! And with no expertise to combat those bats in the belfry! May God Bless & Restore Common Sense To These United States of America!
Infrastructure problems being what they may, it is worth noting that there are over 1,000 derailments annually in the US (a number that’s been decreasing), divided amongst the states even my dismal math skill deduces that’s a hell of a lot more than 2 per state (as being pointed out in the article). No insult intended to the residents of the stricken towns but where were all the derailment stories prior to East Palestine?
This totally Corrupt Obama administration is controlled by extremely unqualified drones. Without a mass citizen revolt America is doomed.
Be advised the voting machines and criminal poll workers are still there. What you hope for in 2024 may very well be “pie in the sky”
The city of Philadelphia is an unbelievable mess. Our politicians are a mess. Their only goal is to get reelected, money, and power. Yes, our country is crumbling and going down hill. Yes, we work for them, our useless leaders.
What happened to all the money allotted to infrastructure and “shovel ready jobs” under Obama? What happened to all the money Biden keeps asking Congress to designate for infrastructure?
It is part of the plan Brandon is executing on orders of the WEF.
Where did all that money go from the Build Back Better bill? To the Ukraine? Where is the build up of the power structure to power all the E cars and ranges and furnaces?
Wake up America we are already half way to a third world country.
They don’t want to help the homeless or stop the fentanyl from coming into this country.
They just want to get rich from it.
79% of Americans might believe the country is falling apart but half of them are dem robots who believe its owing to taxes being too low and regulations too few.
Joe and his Keystone Kops worry more about sticking us in electric cars, rail and the like than they do about the shaky infrastructure that is needed to support it all.
This is the THIRD derailment in Ohio since December 2022. The first happened between Ravenna and Rootstown on the same track that runs through East Palestine. More than 20 cars came off the tracks into people’s backyards. The cars mostly contained new vehicles but it could have been the same as East Palestine. There are still a few cars that have not been cut up and removed yet.
Our “diverse” Transportation Secretary, Mr. Pete Buttgiggles needs to tell his boss that the billions that are being sent to throw Ukranians into the Russian wood chipper would better be spent in at least somewhat modernizing our rail and even highway infrastructure. De railments, bridge collapses, this stuff happens so often we pay no mind when we hear of yet another incident.
Madness rules the Whitehouse as well as almost all of Congress. Do we all have to die to have change started? That can make sense only to what is left of the brain of Joe Brandon.
Fragile state of our infrastructure my foot, these are intentional. Look squirrel, look balloon, look chemical spill meanwhile the NWO of unelected officials is getting an even greater foothold. Wake up people. This country is going to dissolve in the quagmire of an evil dictatorship and people still refuse to wake up to the fact that we need the country back to what it was, one nation under God!
This is what happens as the U.S. becomes more Socialist, with government control of businesses as well as too much of our social lives. When company’s are allowed to operate within free capitalism, they can be made to be responsible.
Could it be the enemies of America are here thanks to Biden opened door on border has been behind these derailments??
See where certain ppls claiming Walmart Dollar General and Target are overcharging ppl closing stores well maybe they should look in the mirror they are the reason for this Too much shop lifting flat out theft now they complain ???
somebody gonna pay for lost merchandise
when ppl steal somebody gonna pay well we all suffer because certain ppl want freebies
when is America gonna wake up stop all this
How many of these woke people doing these jobs are highschool drop-outs? I wonder.
The Infrastructure Bill has passed but there doesn’t appear to be any haste in getting to work. I wonder where to billions for the bill are really going. I doubt any of it will go to the infrastructure. I bet some pockets are going to be full.
The only infrastructure that will be lined are administration friendly contractors, democratic/progressive cities and politicians pockets.
The Federal mantra (at all levels) is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; acronym DEI (which is Latin for GOD, ironically!). What it should read is Diversity, Inclusion, and equity; acronym DIE. Makes more sense, no?
No more ‘woke’ hires in executive mgmt please
Why aren’t the railroads doing more about the poor conditions of their tracks. These accidents have to be very costly and embarrassing.
Buttegieg has no business being Transportation Secretary. He has not even spent 10% of his two years in office doing his job. He is in over his head and knows nothing abour railroads and airports. That is why they are all going to hell in a handbasket, and people are getting hurt under his tenure. Please…NO MORE woke Democrats running our country!
I read many complaints and agree with most unwoke writers. Those folks who have a relationship with Jesus are blessed. We must share that blessing with others to cleanse our beautiful America. Hell is real and forever. The woke community don’t know what they don’t know. Praise to Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
This I believe is deliberate
NOW this train business is making sense! INFRASTRUCTURE! What next? A few major highway bridges start falling apart? Where are the democrats/Biden on the “Infrastructure” business? Wonder how the politicians investment activities look today, in regards to contractors and railroads etc
I don’t have the money oh Pete and Joe have no idea what they’re doing. From what I see over the last 35 or 40 years the Democrat party has turned into a laughingstock. Not to say that the Republicans don’t have their faults to but it seems like the Democrats are the ones that are really screwing up.
In the pictures from a Palestine helicopter showed a huge hole blown in the ground. The broken twisted rails and the earth under the track just past the hole have the look of earth blown up and settled back down. Comments from a railroad worker made the observation that an iud explosion does the same thing.
I doubt that we will hear anything about that in the mainstream.