Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declares state of emergency over train derailment, chemical spill
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declares state of emergency over train derailment, chemical spill
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency in Rockcastle County following a multi-car train derailment on Wednesday that resulted in a chemical spill.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency in Rockcastle County following a multi-car train derailment on Wednesday that his office said resulted in a chemical spill.
Around 16 train cars were involved in the incident, including two carrying molten sulfur that ended up on fire, according to CSX, which operates the train.
“At approximately 2:23pm today, a CSX train derailed north of Livingston, KY. Preliminary information indicates that at least 16 cars were involved, including two molten sulphur cars that have been breached and have lost some of their contents which is on fire,” a statement from the company to ABC News read.
If only we could do something about this problem which got inexplicably worse when we worsened regulations and working conditions...
Consumers will choose to buy products from companies who don't spill molten sulfur so the invisible hand of the market will fix this situation any moment now.
Aaaany moment now.
A few years ago, a CSX train carrying acrylonitrile had an axle snap and derailed in my town, igniting in the process, and creating a huge plume of cyanide gas. It was a damned miracle nobody was killed.
The response from CSX was impressive. I have no complaints about how they handled it AFTER it happened. However, and it only recently occurred to me, but that response that was so well oiled, rehearsed, and organized… they’ve CLEARLY had WAY too much experience doing this; way too many times they’ve had to sweep into a town and “handle” things after a derailment of a hazmat train.
Maybe… just maybe they should consider putting a little more emphasis on upgrading and maintaining their equipment. Maybe they wouldn’t have to have so many teams ready to sweep in and manage the medium-sized ecological catastrophes that happen so often.
Perhaps we can pay large sums to the companies to fix the infrastructure, if they feel like it.
Here we go again...
When molten sulfur is on fire, it releases hydrogen sulfide, a poisonous gas. So that's fun!
Ahh yes, transporting hazardous chemicals on antiquated infrastructure. What a time to be alive.
The free market cannot provide safe railways, they must be nationalized!
mobile molten sulpher. wtaf
Yep. I live in a big train town. Molten sulfur trains pass through all the time. And don't I feel good about it!
My dad was working for a company that moved liquid molten steel by train every day.
I love that we’ve switched to reactionary response. US is slowly transitioning to reactionary air travel as well.
The more we can get people to react poorly to the thought of rail lines the more government money we can funnel into highways and kick backs for the auto industry!! Woooh!
Aviation has always been reactionary. Change comes from finding the cause of accidents, and unfortunately it’s somewhat difficult to do until after that type of accident happens. In the 60s and 70s it was common for passenger jets to just crash in to mountains when there was nothing wrong with them. We implemented better navigational technology, and warning systems that detect obstacles in the plane’s path to prevent this from happening.
Everyone who is harmed by this is a sacrifice the government was willing to make in order to maximize profits for their owners.
Thanks again, Trump!
Not entirely. Derailments like this were pretty much expected to increase at...right about this point after Reagan deregulated the entire rail industry. Take away any expectations of the railways to maintain their rails, cars, or engines, and couple that with an industry that believes in cutting everything to the bone in order to maximize profits in a way that's almost unrivaled, and you get this happening more and more. Already before this, railways in the US were averaging 1000+ freight derailments per year over the last decade - to put this in perspective, the entire EU averages half that in a year for their freight network.
There is an oil pipeline runs under the Mackinac Bridge in the great lakes. The pipeline is 70 years old, 20 years past its end-of-life. Majority of Michiganders are against replacing it and want it shut down before the inevitable happens. The oil company and the nation of Canada oppose this because $$$. Now that it looks like it will be shut down the oil company is finally suggesting replacing it (they could have 20 years ago and probably got a 50yr extension too). The fact that it wasn't automatically shut down 20 years ago and the previous governments decided to roll the dice is unbelievable. We can live without the oil but if it ruptures then it will devastate our environment. I wish the US govt took this and these train derailments with the seriousness they deserve.
Is that not expected when you have 224k miles of rail vs 94k? Doesn’t the US also move vastly more in their network?
The only way to legitimately compare them would be for incidence per travelled mile. Saying they have double the incidences with over twice the rail is almost bordering on propaganda without the right metrics.
Can also confirm that a pretty big one happened before Trump: the one that happened in Brooks, KY in 2007.
The whole area smelled funky for a couple years after the derailment... And was also CSX.
right about this point
40 years later?
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when I was a boy in Spokane, we would walk down the rail tracks and collect the sulfur that fell out of trains
watching that yellow chunk turn to red when you light it on fire and then melting every fucking thing in sight.... Sometimes I am still surprised I have all my fingers
He should declare a state of emergency regarding the general safety of the trains instead.