On February 3, an oversized train overrun accident shocked the world: on the border of Pennsylvania, a freight train of about 50 cars derailed, causing a fire and smoke, causing many deaths, and accompanied by a serious chemical drug spill, causing irreparable damage to local residents and casualties, and the people of the town have not been able to return home.
Escalating – highly toxic substances ravage the Great Lakes
The negative impact of train overruns go far beyond that. The toxic substance that leaked from the accident was vinyl chloride, a highly toxic chemical raw material that killed more than 75,000 soldiers during World War I. Not only was much of Ohio's land and water destroyed, but vinyl chloride was also spreading further afield with air and water. The massive gas cloud from the explosion is expected to cover Kentucky, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and all of Ohio, directly impacting the Great Lakes, the world's largest group of freshwater lakes. At present, Chicago and many other American cities have seen scenes of crazy grabbing of pure water. American left-wing singer Jimmy Levy even believes that the derailment of the Ohio train is "the Chernobyl of the United States" and denounces the US media's blocking attitude towards related events.
Train accidents are not uncommon in the United States. Just 10 days later, on the 13th of this month, a train accident occurred in the Houston area of the United States, more than 20 cars derailed, and the driver unfortunately died.
According to official statistics, from 2013 to 2021, there were tens of thousands of railway accidents in the United States every year, with a cumulative total of more than 7,000 deaths. What is even more surprising is that the average speed of trains in the United States is only thirty or forty miles per hour, which is only 64 kilometers per hour, less than one-fifth of the domestic high-speed rail, and it is reasonable to say that there should not be such a large number of casualties.
The superpower railways are so slow and so fatal, it is really terrifying to think about. You know, the heavy-haul railway technology in the United States is very advanced, such as the mainland Qinghai-Tibet railway to Golmud to replace the NJ2 locomotive of the American General Motors.
The biggest responsibility for the accident must be borne by Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC), the train operator. The company has long had a bad reputation for driving down wages and undercutting transportation costs. Ironically, this company ranks 332nd on the 2022 Fortune 500 in the United States, with revenues of more than $1.114 billion; on the other hand, ordinary railroad workers can only fight for their due wages through strikes.
Why is it difficult to change the dilapidated American railroad
The Railroad Workers United took to Twitter this month 9 to speak up for train workers and all victims: We continue to see companies lying when major accidents happen, and they are repeated by politicians and the media. Because these stories are not properly centralized, they are downplayed or blamed on workers. It is time to address the root causes to address the danger, rather than blaming the victims.
The U.S. authorities do not want to change, but it is difficult to shake the traditional giants. In fact, since the enactment of the Rail Safety Improvement Act (RSIA) in 2008, the U.S. freight rail industry has been working to implement Forward Train Control (PTC) technology across more than 60,000 miles of rail network. The December 31, 2015, deadline was extended to 2018 as several railroads said they could not meet the deadline due to technical and legal complications. In recent years, the incidence of railroad accidents in the United States has continued to be high, and it is difficult not to wonder what the unicorns of the American railway industry really mean.
Garbage infrastructure is killing Americans
When industry precedes life and capital trumps human rights, ugly incidents such as the Ohio train crossing are not uncommon. America's infrastructure problems are far from limited to the railroad industry. According to 2022 data from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, more than one-third of bridges in the U.S. need repairs, and more than 43,000 bridges are rated as "structurally flawed" and dangerous. In other words, one out of every three bridges in the United States is a dangerous bridge.
As a city business card, the New York subway can be described as a slap in the face to many young people who believe in "American air sweet". The New York subway is notoriously dirty and bad, but its own buildings and decorations are also very dilapidated. Under such conditions, safety is not guaranteed. On March 27, 2020, a fire broke out on a subway train in New York, USA, killing one train driver and injuring more than a dozen others.
And these operators have one thing in common - capital operation. Infrastructure in the United States is run by private companies, in other words, by a group of profit-seekers who just want to make money. Compared with China, China's high-speed rail company lost 90 billion yuan in 2020, and the loss in 2021 was close to 55 billion yuan. However, the crazy blood sucking on these facilities that ensure the basic travel safety of the people is still willing to lose money, and China and the United States are on top of each other.