This February was very unfriendly to ordinary Americans, and at least four train derailment accidents occurred in many places in the United States. The most serious thing is that on February 3rd, in a small town called East Palestine at the junction of Ohio and Pennsylvania, a fire broke out after a train carrying dangerous chemicals derailed, and chemicals including vinyl chloride were scattered along with the toxic smoke column.
The accident freight train exceeded 100 cars, and about 50 cars derailed. Among them, 20 cars carry toxic substances, including 5 cars carrying compressed vinyl chloride.
Fish turned over, chickens and dogs died, and people felt unwell and other symptoms.
In the next few days, there were thousands of dead fish and frogs in the nearby rivers. The media exposed the sudden death of chickens, dogs, foxes and other pets in people’s homes. Residents complained of headaches, burning eyes and sore throats.
The incident occurred in the small town of East Palestine. Before the 1950s, the industry in the town was relatively developed, and the economy has declined. There are 4,700 residents in the town. The income of local residents is lower than the national average, and they are in a state of economic decline. This accident has seriously affected the normal travel and life of local residents, and the blow to the East Palestinian town is very huge.
How terrible is vinyl chloride?
According to data from the National Cancer Institute, vinyl chloride may increase the risk of liver cancer and other cancers. In addition, the leaked substances include butyl acrylate and a small amount of harmless lubricating oil. According to public information, butyl acrylate is a transparent colorless liquid with strong fruit smell, which is used to make plastics and paints, and can be inhaled, ingested or absorbed through the skin. According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, it will irritate eyes, skin and lungs, or cause shortness of breath, and repeated contact will lead to lung injury.
There are also many consumers who are worried that the locally produced milk and drinks can still be drunk normally after the incident. In this regard, dairy analysts pointed out that vinyl chloride, as a first-class carcinogen, can exist in nature for a long time, and related toxic substances will penetrate into local soil, groundwater and lake water, which will cause serious damage to the local ecosystem. In the short term, consumers are not advised to eat milk, drinks and other foods produced there. Some experts have warned that the impact of the spill may last as long as 20 years, and it may appear in the form of residents suffering from cancer or groundwater pollution.
In addition to vinyl chloride, the train also contains toxic chemicals such as ethylene glycol monobutyl ether, vinyl acrylate and isobutylene. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States show that exposure to ethylene glycol monobutyl ether will irritate eyes, skin, nose and throat, and symptoms such as headache and vomiting will occur. Contact with carcinogenic vinyl acrylate will irritate skin and eyes, inhalation will irritate nose and throat, leading to shortness of breath and cough, and inhalation of isobutylene will also lead to dizziness and drowsiness.
US government official: Air and water are safe.
The outside world called the chemical leakage accident "Chernobyl 2.0", and the Chernobyl nuclear accident was regarded as the most serious nuclear leakage accident in the last century. This name was used to describe the visible danger of this incident. However, local officials in the United States insist that both air and drinking water are safe at present. The US Environmental Protection Agency also said that there was no "any degree of concern" in the air in East Palestine City. The mandatory evacuation order for residents of East Palestinian City was revoked on the 8th, on the grounds that sample monitoring showed that the local air and water bodies were safe. Officials of the railway union said that they had long warned that similar accidents might happen because the reduction of the railway budget hindered safety measures.
Democratic Party Minister of Transportation: It’s all Trump’s fault
On February 13th, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Butigig attended the annual meeting of the National Federation of Counties. Buttigieg didn’t say anything about the train derailment, but praised the infrastructure investment plan promoted by Biden’s government. Minister of Communications Butigig even smashed former President Trump. On 14th local time, Buttigieg tweeted about the accident in Ohio, saying that Biden’s government had taken many actions on railway safety. On the contrary, Trump’s government abolished a legal requirement that trains carrying flammable liquids must use ECP braking system in 2018, which led to the Ministry of Communications’ "incompetence" in safety supervision.
Buttigieg’s irresponsible speech caused a backlash from Republicans. On the 16th, local time, Republican Senator Marco Lu Biao sent a letter to US President Biden, asking him to remove the post of transportation minister Butigig on the grounds that the young man born in 1982 was "seriously incompetent and indifferent", which threatened the safety of Americans.
The townspeople were angry at the town meeting, but the representatives of the companies involved didn’t come.
Nearly two weeks after the derailment of the "poison train" on February 3, on February 15, the town of East Palestine in Columbia County, Ohio held a municipal meeting in a local high school gymnasium. Mayor Trent Conaway and hundreds of angry residents were present. The mayor expressed his frustration in dealing with the railway and other departments, and said that he was also "insecure".
But interestingly, Norfolk Southern Company, the company behind the train that was on the cusp, did not send anyone to attend the meeting because of "fear of personal threats". In a statement, the company said that it hoped to share the measures it was taking with the residents at the meeting, but changed the subject and said, "Unfortunately, after consulting with community leaders, we are increasingly worried about the growing physical threat to our employees and community members due to the increasing possibility of external participation."
Dozens of residents couldn’t find someone to talk to, so they turned their fire on the poor mayor, who kept shouting with a megaphone, hoping to find a solution to the problem with the people.
AlanShaw, CEO of this company, refused to give any interview and made no statement on the derailment of the "poison train". A spokesman for the company explained in the statement that the weight distribution of the trains involved was "balanced" during operation, and a locomotive was also equipped in the middle of the train "to help manage the dynamic stress of the train and reduce mechanical failures".
The "poison train" derailed or broke down before derailment due to excessive length and overload.
According to US media reports, several staff members who know about it revealed that the train involved had at least one failure before derailment, which may be related to the train being too long and the weight of the loaded goods being too large.
The report quoted an informed employee as saying that the train involved departed from Madison, Illinois, USA on the evening of February 1, local time, with a total of 151 carriages, about 2,834.6 meters long and weighing 18,000 tons. Before the derailment accident on the 3rd, the train broke down at least once. These informed employees believe that the train is too long and too heavy, which is likely to lead to this failure and eventually lead to derailment.
Things haven’t finished yet. Just as the "poison train" in Ohio was still raging, a train derailed in the town of Van Billen, Detroit, Michigan. Fortunately, the accident did not cause a fire or cause casualties. Coincidentally, the accident train in Michigan and the "poison train" in Ohio belong to Norfolk Southern Railway Company.
Railway transportation is the most profitable industry in the United States, surpassing real estate and tobacco industry.
According to Wikipedia, the American economy is very dependent on railway transportation. Freight railways play an important role in the American economy, especially for transporting container import and export products, as well as transporting coal and oil. According to an article in The Economist, a British news magazine, "They are unanimously regarded by the industry as the best in the world". From 1981 to 2000, the transportation capacity increased by 172%, while the cost decreased by 55%. The proportion of railways in the American freight market rose to 43%, which was the highest among all developed countries, and containers were unloaded from major ports.
The prosperity of the United States today is largely due to the development of railway transportation. As early as the 1960s, the United States built the first railway artery across the east and west coasts, which had a revolutionary impact on the population and economy in the western United States and promoted the transformation from the dominant "wagon trains" in the past few decades to a modern transportation system. This railway is also the main political legacy of then President Lincoln.
Although the number of airports in the United States now ranks first in the world, the high cost of air transportation has discouraged many organizations, while truck transportation requires more manpower and material resources. Railway transportation is still the most cost-effective means of transportation. Today, about one-third of the goods in the United States are transported by rail, and the greenhouse gas emitted by railway freight per ton per mile is only one-tenth of that of trucks.
According to the data of American Transportation Magazine, as of 2019, railway has become the most profitable industry in the United States, with a profit margin of 51%. In contrast, real estate ranks second, with 41%; Tobacco ranked third with 31%.
Of course, making money from American railway transportation is only the freight railway. The American passenger railway is getting worse every year, and it has become a chicken rib now. However, in the 1970s, Amtrak once had the ambition to make itself a railway company like the Shinkansen in Japan.
In 1980, the U.S. Congress introduced the Staggers Rail Act, which relaxed the management of the railway industry. Since then, almost all freight railways in the United States have been privately owned. In order to maximize profits, these private enterprises have sought to minimize costs and "sew and mend for another three years". This has led to the scene at the beginning of the article, where a trembling train runs on the track that has been in disrepair.
The 5000-meter American freight train is a super-long version of "Snake"
In February this year, it was no accident that trains derailed many times in the United States. In fact, freight trains derailed in the United States. According to the data of the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, there were 54,539 train derailment accidents in the United States from 1990 to 2021, with an average of 1,704 accidents per year, and an average of 4 people died in derailment accidents every year. According to the data of the Federal Railway Administration, in the past ten years (2013-2022), there were 12,441 train derailment incidents in the United States, with an average of 3.4 incidents per day.
It was not until many American media exposed the chemical spill that occurred on February 3 and caused the derailment accident of the fire that it really attracted the attention of the outside world. Norfolk Southern Railway Company is one of the American railway freight giants, and derailment accidents are no strangers to it. In 2021, there were 144 derailment accidents in Norfolk.
Ohio’s "poison train" is 2800 meters long and weighs 18000 tons, but it is not the longest and heaviest freight train in the United States. In order to save transportation costs, the length of most freight trains in the United States has increased from 2,000 meters to more than 5,000 meters, with more than 200 cars, which is a giant "greedy snake". In contrast, freight trains in Europe do not exceed 750 meters and weigh between 300 and 400 tons.
Because the length is too short and the weight is too light, the freight trains in Europe have been ridiculed by their American counterparts and called "mini trains".
The fundamental reason why European trains refuse to become longer is that most European railways are state-owned, and about 79% of European train mileage is generated by passenger trains. It is also worth noting that the axle load in Europe is limited to 20 to 23 tons, which determines that European freight trains cannot carry overweight goods. In contrast, rail freight in the United States, Canada and Mexico is transported by cars (trucks), and each axle usually carries 30, 33 or even 35 tons. The cost per ton of freight transported by rail in the United States is also much lower than that in Europe. For this reason, the operating income of the seven major railways in the United States is positive growth. Some newly established European freight railway companies actually incurred losses on the basis of the income statement.
The longer and heavier American freight trains increase the carrying pressure on the rails. When designing the railway network, the giant monster trains were not considered. This kind of train often twists and turns when running, which makes driving more difficult. The railway track has been lacking in maintenance for many years, and there have been many accidents in the United States that freight trains derailed because of track cracks.
In addition to the hardware can not be updated in time, American railway workers often work overtime and are squeezed. That is, at the end of last year, American railway workers and railway companies could not talk about the treatment. They originally planned to hold a general strike on December 9, and it was not until the Biden administration intervened and facilitated a temporary contract agreement to avoid the interruption of railway services. In order to quell the dissatisfaction of railway workers, the new working conditions stipulate that the salary will be increased by 24% within five years, and an annual bonus of $1,000 per person will be paid for five years. The new contract also provides extra paid holidays.
Even so, the work intensity of American railway workers is staggering. Data show that in the past six years, railway companies have cut 29% first-class employees, and the number of American railway employees has decreased from the peak of one million to less than 180,000 this year. The biggest impact of layoffs is the safety of railway transportation. The rest of the workers enter the "Dickensian" working mode (novelist Dickens mainly writes about the exploitative reality of bourgeois industrial society), and they must be on standby 24 hours a day, and it is difficult to even have sick leave.
In addition, the operation of freight trains in the United States also relies on the idea of precision dispatching railway (PSR): freight railways no longer wait for goods to board, but operate according to a fixed timetable; Container goods and general commodities are no longer transported separately, but are sent together in combination. The benefit of this idea is to greatly reduce the operating cost and labor cost, but the combination of the shortage of railway workers, disrepair of roads and increasingly long carriage length has caused the chemical leakage crisis in small towns in East Palestine. The capital crocodile behind the railway company is no longer a behemoth that any American government can bind, and the "poison train" accident in Ohio is not over.
Author Angelababy, the direct news editor of Shenzhen Satellite TV.