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.
Two different teams. Sounds like the response team has some real winners on it and the maintenance team doesn’t, or, lacks budget
Cheaper to respond once in a while than to prevent fleet wide. Capitalism alone settles on cost efficacy.
Perhaps we can pay large sums to the companies to fix the infrastructure, if they feel like it.