It’s been so interesting to watch the slowly building news coverage of the East Palestine derailment with you all over the last month. Glad to see that the event is finally getting the coverage it deserves. As we talked about in class, since this has happened (and since our class started this semester) it seems that derailments and other disasters are unfolding with increased frequency. Here is an opinion piece in the New York Times about how many train derailments we have in the US and how we might bring that number down.
Interesting to me is the chart showing that derailments have actually been going down since around 1980. That seems like a good thing. And indicates maybe part of the issue is expanded news coverage of such issues. Although the chart next to it show that the number of derailments with toxic chemical spills has been going up. In any case, working to continue to bring down the number of derailments seems like important work.
Not to take away from the tragedy and severity of this news item, but I have to admit I found something quaint in reading the summary of the manifest published from the train in East Palestine that lists the eclectic assortment of cargo boxes and their fates: Vinyl chloride (burned), propylene glycol (spilled), semolina flour (burned), oil (burned), cotton balls (burned), steel sheets (burned), frozen vegetables (burned), benzene (cargo intact), paraffin wax (cargo intact), uncertain flakes and powder (burned), cement (no damage), cars (no damage), malt liquors (no damage).
Read more here: David Sirota, Rebecca Burns, Julia Rock and Matthew Cunningham-Cook, “Over 1,000 Trains Derail Every Year in America. Let’s Bring That Number Down”, New York Times, Feb. 17, 2023
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