Balloons are placed next to a sign displaying information for residents to receive air-quality tests from Norfolk Southern Railway on February 16, 2023, in East Palestine, Ohio.Railroad workers are warning that, if policymakers don’t act soon to rein in the rail industry with better regulations and protections for workers, there will be far more crashes like this month’s disaster in East Palestine, Ohio.
In a statement on Friday, rail reform group Railroad Workers United pointed out that the government has determined that the Ohio crash was “100 percent preventable.” The National Transportation Safety Board released last week that “Every single event that we investigate is preventable,” RWU noted. RWU called for politicians to take immediate action on the rail industry by implementing new regulations and strengthening existing rules. They say that the industry has continually “prioritized profits over safety” by implementing extreme cost-cutting measures in recent decades while brushing off workers’ concerns about safety.
“Every day we go to work, we have serious concerns about preventing accidents like the one that occurred in Ohio,” said RWU general secretary Jason Doering. “As locomotive engineers, conductors, signal maintainers, car inspectors, track workers, dispatchers, machinists, and electricians, we experience the reality that our jobs are becoming increasingly dangerous due to insufficient staffing, inadequate maintenance, and a lack of oversight and inspection.
“Railroad workers experience firsthand every day the dangers inherent in this style of railroading. It has impacted their safety and health, state of mind, and lives on and off the job,” added RWU co-chair Gabe Christenson.