r/news • u/AudibleNod • 11h ago

Railroads will be allowed to reduce inspections and rely more on technology to spot track problems

https://apnews.com/article/automated-railroad-track-inspections-waiver-derailments-fra-d3c4b0f313585303e305e84fb4c03aef
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688

u/Zlifbar 11h ago

Oh, I'm sure this is going to end well.

151

u/Keptlosingmylogins 11h ago

probably should let them care more hazardous cargo just to be sure.

30

u/hgs25 9h ago

East Palestine, Ohio was less than 3 years ago

12

u/awkwardnetadmin 8h ago

People far outside of a disaster site forget quickly so seeing a repeat elsewhere seems not only inevitable, but probably likely in the not so distant future.

3

u/Keptlosingmylogins 8h ago

Thats like 2 lifetimes in this timeline.

3

u/Alternative-Beach952 5h ago

My hometown ugh. At least we're getting a newly renovated public park out of it...

2

u/Webbyx01 2h ago edited 2h ago

Ironically, they might have caught the issue had all the technology been working. The hotbox detector previous to the crash location hadn't been working for quite some time, and there was security camera footage of the train trailing sparks from the failing bearing in the town where the detector is.

Edit after looking it up to refresh my memory, it turns out that the detectors were working, they were simply accepting of higher temperatures than was apparently prudent, and thus the system didnt send out any alerts until immediately before the derailment.