US transportation chief visits hazmat disaster site amid criticism of inadequate response

By Darren Lyn

HOUSTON, United States (AA) - US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made a visit Thursday to a hazmat train derailment site in the state of Ohio nearly three weeks after the Feb. 3 disaster.

His visit comes one day after former President Donald Trump visited East Palestine and criticized the Biden administration for "indifference and betrayal" for the White House's response to the derailment.

"To any national political figure who has decided to get involved in the plight of East Palestine ... I have a simple message, which is I need your help," Buttigieg said at a news conference without naming Trump. "Because if you're serious about this, there is more that we could do to prevent more communities from going through this."

Buttigieg explained that he wanted to allow the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to lead the initial stages of the investigation before he made his engagement on the ground, a balance he acknowledged is going to be criticized with his visit coming three weeks later.

"We can talk about process ... and that's perfectly fair, but I don't want people pointing to process as a way to get away from the fundamental questions of rail safety regulation and accountability and whether we're gonna make it tougher or whether we're gonna allow it to continue being watered down," he said. "I think the most important thing is first of all making sure that the residents here have what they need, something that from our piece of the puzzle, DOT (Department of Transportation), we were working on from day one and making sure we do something for the future."

Buttigieg told residents the DOT is continuing to implement and enforce actions that the railroad industry needs, including better-informing communities when hazardous materials are coming through and taking steps to take care of workers and their systems. He also emphasized there needs to be more work done in Congress to strengthen the railroad industry.

"We're also holding ourselves to the highest standard in terms of the work that we're doing and the work that we're going to continue to do to both respond to this incident and to make sure that we make rail safer for everyone who lives in a community that is close to rail lines and anybody who is involved in freight rail at all," he said.

"To continue doing everything that we can to raise the bar on rail safety and to hold people accountable," he added.