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Buttigieg calls on Congress, operators to act on rail safety

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Tuesday, called on both Congress and the freight railroad industry to act immediately and help strengthen safety measures in the wake of a major train derailment in Ohio earlier this month. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
1 of 4 | Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Tuesday, called on both Congress and the freight railroad industry to act immediately and help strengthen safety measures in the wake of a major train derailment in Ohio earlier this month. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 21 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Transportation Tuesday called on both Congress and the freight railroad industry to act immediately to help strengthen safety measures in the wake of a train derailment in Ohio earlier this month.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg set out a list of improvements, calling on the industry to implement them on a voluntary basis rather than wait for regulators to mandate them.

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Buttigieg said the industry as a whole is putting up "vigorous resistance" to any potential costly safety measures.

"Profit and expediency must never outweigh the safety of the American people," Buttigieg said in a statement Tuesday.

"We at USDOT are doing everything in our power to improve rail safety, and we insist that the rail industry do the same -- while inviting Congress to work with us to raise the bar."

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The department's recommendations call on Norfolk Southern and the industry as a whole to protect whistleblowers from reprisal through the Federal Railroad Administration's Confidential Close Call Reporting System.

It also advocates for voluntarily speeding up the rollout of the more modern and safer DOT-107 tanker cars. Current regulations stipulate a 2029 deadline for the industry to meet the standard.

It is also advocating for a strict inspection program any existing older models would be required to pass before hitting the rails.

Among the other key proposals are pushing back against the industry's desire to phase out costly human inspections in favor of purely automated technology.

"The removal of human inspections has been a top priority for the rail lobbyists. Recent waiver requests around technology like Automated Track Inspection have been framed by industry to set up a false choice between technology and human oversight. We need both to keep our nation's railroads safe," the department said in a statement.

The DOT called for more transparency over what potentially-hazardous goods are being transported on a given train. Typically, rail operators do not disclose that information, often leaving it up to first responders on a local level to determine what may have been spilled.

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The department is also calling on operators to provide paid sick leave to discourage employees from working at less than 100% capacity.

Freight-hauling railroad Union Pacific on Monday announced it had reached an agreement with the National Conference of Fireman and Oilers and the Brotherhood of Railway Carman granting employees represented by the two unions access to up to seven paid sick days.

Buttigieg's department also called on Congress to increase the amount of fines that regulators can dole out to operators in the case of an accident.

On Monday, Buttigieg penned an open letter to Alan Shaw, CEO of Norfolk Southern Railway which operated the train that derailed Feb. 3, spilling dangerous chemicals into the air and water in East Palestine, Ohio.

"Norfolk Southern must live up to its commitments to the people of East Palestine. And as USDOT continues to do our own work, I wrote NS to make expectations clear: industry's pattern of resistance to safety regulations must change," Buttigieg Tweeted in the letter Tuesday.

The department is also continuing to push back against industry's resistance to mandating two-person train crews.

A bipartisan group of politicians is demanding answers to the response to the crash, which sent chemicals including vinyl chloride into the water table of East Palestine, located along the Pennsylvania border. Following the crash, the company performed a controlled release of the hazardous material to prevent the rail cars from exploding.

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Last week, the company's executives failed to show up for a public meeting citing safety concerns, angering residents and leaving local politicians demanding answers.

State, county and federal public health officials will start meeting Tuesday with citizens from the affected areas. The public health clinics will run for two weeks and attempt to answer medical questions and provide health assessments and other care in the wake of the derailment.

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