“amerika has 1700 derailments every year” i hear this number but according to NHTSA, there are around 1100 derailments a year (https://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/officeofsafety/publicsite/summary.aspx). okay how many of those are at speed? wait, most of those derailments are at trainyards and dont result in hazmat leaks? in 2022, 32 “serious” hazmat leaks were reported, with only 6 causing injury. in 2022, train accidents resulted in 11 deaths and 56 injuries. how many will East Palestine cause/has caused already

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_railroad_accidents here are NATOpedia’s reported “most serious” railroad accidents. the most recent one comparable to the East Palestine disaster was in 2005 (also committed by Norfolk Southern). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graniteville_train_crash) railcars carrying chlorine gas, sodium hydroxide, and cresols (dont mention dioxin formation tho, thats fearmongering)

“factories dump hazardous chemicals all the time” well halogenated compounds (e.g. vinyl chloride) have been heavily regulated by OSHA for decades. and those factories are criminally operated just like the railroads. two things can be bad at once.

in a vacuum, the East Palestine disaster, is insignificant, but we dont exist in a vacuum. this will keep happening more and more often with the deregulation and declining labor conditions of the freight rail industry over the past few decades. East Palestine might “only” cause a few thousand injuries/deaths. but it also might cause tens of thousands. and as we get more East Palestines happening, the environment will transition to wasteland over the next few decades. this isnt fearmongering, this is what neoliberalism is leading to and it wont reverse unless the people force the state’s hand.

the media coverage of this is for sure a limited hangout. but that should ring more alarm bells. the infrastructure of amerika is falling apart and we will die for the capitalists’ hubris unless something is to be done.