Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Thursday said the federal government will force the operator of a train carrying hazardous chemicals that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, to pay for damages to the people in the community, Reuters reported.
Buttigieg told Reuters: "As long as Norfolk Southern is running trains through here, as long as people feel effects," the operator will pay.
Buttigieg, who has faced criticism over what some residents have viewed as a delayed response, visited the site of the derailment on Thursday and met with members of the community.
He acknowledged that letting a week go by before talking about the derailment was too long and told reporters he had tried to "balance" his desire to get involved with the "norm of transportation secretaries."
"I felt strongly about this and could have expressed that sooner," the secretary continued. "Again, I was taking pains to respect the role that I have and the role that I don't have, but that should not have stopped me from weighing in about how I felt about what was happening to this community."
He also called on former President Donald Trump to support the Biden administration in reversing Trump-era deregulations in the wake of the derailment.
"One thing he can do is express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch. I heard him say he had nothing to do with it, even though it was in his administration. So, if he had nothing to do with it and they did it in his administration against his will, maybe he can come out and say that he supports us moving in a different direction," Buttigieg said.
A preliminary finding from the National Transportation Safety Board shows that one wheel bearing was 253 degrees above ambient temperatures but that an alarm did not go off until a sensor registered that it had reached that temperature.
The report also said the crew tried to slow the train, which was headed from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, and reported a possible train derailment to the dispatcher when fire and smoke were seen. Five of the derailed cars were carrying 115,580 gallons of vinyl chloride, a colorless hazardous gas.
"After the train stopped, the crew observed fire and smoke and notified the Cleveland East dispatcher of a possible derailment. With dispatcher authorization, the crew applied handbrakes to the two railcars at the head of the train, uncoupled the head-end locomotives, and moved the locomotives about 1 mile from the uncoupled railcars," the NTSB wrote. "Responders arrived at the derailment site and began response efforts."
East Palestine residents have complained of headaches and rashes and question if it's safe to live in the area.
Buttigieg, the first high-level member of President Joe Biden's administration to visit the wreck site, called the report an "important step" towards developing a policy solution and preventing another incident like the one in East Palestine.
"While we will, of course, wait for their analysis and recommendations at the end of the full process to make certain judgments, we will not wait for that process to run its course, to continue doing everything that we can to raise the bar on rail safety and to hold people accountable," Buttigieg said.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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