Despite the scale and complexity of last year’s Norfolk Southern train derailment disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, there is bipartisan legislation in Congress that may actually codify some of the lessons learned from the tragedy — creating lasting changes and taking steps towards preventing future tragedies. However, since the Railway Safety Enhancement Act’s (RSEA) introduction this July, the bill hasn’t advanced in the legislature.
The February 2023 accident derailed 38 train cars, including 11 tanker cars carrying hazardous materials which then ignited, threatening the residents of East Palestine. The chaotic aftermath and containment efforts included a planned detonation which sent up a massive black plume of smoke that wafted across the region.
Besides addressing some of the brass tacks failures, the RSEA attempts to tackle more systemic issues that have plagued the freight railway sector for decades, like modernizing the movement of information across private and public agencies and combating the retaliatory system for reporting rail safety hazards.
After the accident, important information on the train’s contents wasn’t passed on to local emergency personnel for roughly an hour, a critical window during which response was crippled and evacuations were delayed. The RSEA provides funding for an app which will show emergency responders what hazardous chemicals are moving through their communities in real time, a long-overdue modernization of communications that allows existing data to be shared more seamlessly.
The measure also creates a Confidential Close Call Reporting System, which employees of large freight companies can use to report safety issues confidentially. For years, railroad union officials have described an environment in which reporting safety issues was punished. The RSEA will ensure that professional rail engineers will no longer fear reprisals for insisting on safety.
These important legislative updates will finally codify many recommendations put forth by the toothless National Transportation Safety Board. As the Post-Gazette has uncovered, many of these recommendations stagnate in committee for years. For example: The NTSB first questioned the reliability of the tanker car that ignited during the East Palestine Derailment way back in 1991, when a study showed their alarming propensity to spill during accidents.
Despite continuous blocking from Senate Republicans, the RSEA has bipartisan sign-offs from the current Biden administration as well as former President Trump, both of Pennsylvania and Ohio’s senators (including vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance) and many industry labor unions — including the one representing Norfolk Southern workers.
Among the House co-sponsors is U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, who also recently introduced important legislation to enforce existing rules giving Amtrak passenger trains priority over freight along the country’s rail network. His involvement is only natural: 95% of his constituents live within five miles of the derailment site.
It will soon be two years since the East Palestine disaster. That anniversary should not pass before the lessons of the accident are put into law.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via TNS
