Ohio train derailment and Pete Buttigieg.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

I can only find negative coverage of him. Surely he and his department are hard at work on this. Apparently Google is clueless as to what. But there are many nasty articles a click away.

https://www.newsweek.com/pete-buttigieg-ignores-ohio-train-derailment-transportation-celebration-1780918

If anyone finds info on the progress of the transportation dept over the disaster, please post it. He seems to be back footed.

[LonePirate]

1. Media coverage of this derailment and disaster has been horrendous.

Journalists have essentially been nothing but mouthpieces for the corporation and Republicans. The American people and Democrats have suffered as a result.

[raging moderate]

2. The government needs to speak up about Norfolk Rail's antiquated brake system.

Norfolk Rail is probably dispensing huge favors and funds very quietly in order to create an atmosphere that blames Pete Buttegieg for the disaster created by the lazy, greedy, callous failures of the rich stockholders and executives and other Norfolk personnel that resulted in this terrible tragedy.

[paleotn]

8. A disaster of NS's making.

They own the tracks. They own the locomotives and railcars.

We don't need no stinking regulation, do we?

[milestogo]

3. "buttplug" is trending on twitter

That's what the homophobes are calling him.

[In It to Win It]

5. I saw and then I clicked

and only saw a line of tweets defending Pete Buttigieg.

[WarGamer]

14. Those are some GRADE AA MAGATS right there...

I can almost see the F-250 Diesel pickup trucks with flags on the back.

[FSogol]

16. How good are they at holding their breath?

[Freethinker65]

4. Aside from giving updates on potential cause and how to prevent a recurrence,

I don't think any blame can be on Buttigieg personally.

The GOP tried to get the media to blame Buttigieg for problems with Southwest and for the temporary airline halt when someone messed with some FAA hardware/software, but that didn't really stick.

Until one actually knows the cause (there are reports of sparks under the train as it traveled through Illinois), I don't see how one can blame the government. Has a definite cause been found? The breached cars' contents should have been contained by Norfolk's recovery system, some cars were intentionally set ablaze to prevent a possible explosion which would have been worse.

Any transportation of hazardous materials brings risk.

[paleotn]

7. I guess they really don't understand the privatization and deregulation

they love to banter on about. Until it bits their ass anyway.

[TheRealNorth]

21. Privatize the profits...

Not the costs, responsibility, or blame.

[paleotn]

6. Private tracks and a private rail company.

I thought the right loved them some privatization and hated the dreaded R word...regulation!!!! Until it derails in their backyard from lack of track maintenance I guess.

[Alpeduez21]

9. My wife saw some tweets from Rachel Maddow about this train thing

Usually that indicates she’ll cover it on her show. Since she is not a big twitter presence when she does tweet it means she’ll talk about it on the show. I’ve always found her to be a pretty straight shooter and she can go leaves deep on something. Except for her trump taxes thing that was crap but may have had more to do with the network selling it than her

[2naSalit]

13. I agree...

Looking forward to her take.

It would be great if she can get the Secretary on to interview about this.

[Cheezoholic]

10. We went through this crap with axles and brakes on tanker cars back in 2014/15

after multiple major deadly accidents involving fuel tankers among others in the US and Canada. Rachel spent quite some time on it back then. I found it a bit ironic that these "faulty" brakes and axles on "antiquated" tankers all suddenly started failing at the same time as resistance against Keystone and several other pipelines was gaining a large amount of traction. Rachel even hinted at this in some of her coverage.

Regardless its obvious that the issues weren't addressed properly.

[Celerity]

15. You are posting an often RW zombie rag (Newsweek) piece that uses the POS Nina Turner to attack Pete

Plus it also uses a MAGAt social media stooge attack and another attack by a failed Rethug ex House Rep, a Latina 'Jeebus 'N Gunz? Sí, se puede!' sell-out.


smdh

[SleeplessinSoCal]

17. That was the least offensive link to the story I found.

It's the reason I'm reaching out to find good coverage.

In thinking on this, it's probably best for Buttigieg to hold off on a public statement to both gather info and build an audience for the occasion. Meanwhile, let them do what they do. Then let him do what he does so well, take it to them with facts and clarity.

[vanlassie]

18. I saw a tweet by Pete a couple days ago.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

19. Twitter cannot be the tool for disseminating important information.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[DashOneBravo]

25. The derailment was on 3 Feb

So it took him ten days to comment.

[Deminpenn]

20. This accident happened not too far from

where I live across the border in PA.

There has been no, zero, mention of Buttigieg in any of the local or regional news. The sensors on both the tracks and the train operated as they were designed. The engineer did get a warning in his cab and started emergency braking. However, this was a very long train with 141 cars pulled by 3 engines, probably a mile and half long. It wasn't going to stop on a dime.

RRs are regulated by the Federal Railway Administration, part of DoT.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

22. He has been tweeting away about laws and regulations.

https://twitter.com/SecretaryPete?t=a-EIRMV32PALF_BpBHJyWQ&s=09

[Deminpenn]

23. Not sure everyone understands that not all cars

are owned by the RRs, in this case NS. For privately owned cars, they have to meet all the safety and operating requirements and pass an inspection before they can be part of a freight or passenger train. That is a per a friend who has owned a private RR car, used for passenger excurations, for many years. From my own experience at DoD with aircraft parts, especially parts that constantly rotate, is that they can fail without warning or showing any signs of potential failure like cracks. Not saying that's what happened, but things do happen that are beyond anyone's control or ability to anticipate.

NS already knows an axle on one of the cars failed as the basic cause of the accident. Jmo, but with the video, data recorders, track sensors and cars all available to be inspected and analyzed, NTSB will likely be able to figure out all the details fairly quickly.

On a local note, residents in the affected area voted overwhelming (70%) for Trump in 2020 and Vance and DeWine in 2022. They don't like government or much believe in regulation, until, like in this case, it affects them personally. That tempers my sympathy for them.

[womanofthehills]

26. Lots of people aren't on Twitter

I think Pete made a big mistake by not being more visible and not commenting immediately on the accident.

[betsuni]

24. What comes up is anti-Democratic propaganda: David Sirota, Jacobin, Common Dreams, The Lever,

Fox News.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

28. Even Seth Meyers took him to task for waiting "10 days" to address the disaster.

I'm pretty sure he determined to stay on course to inform the public about the various infrastructure projects under way. They had to wait for the State of the Union address before the big push to get the good word out. Frustrating and somehow typical.