(Washington) US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, much criticized by the Republican opposition, said Thursday that he regretted not having spoken sooner after the derailment of a train carrying chemicals, which caused toxic fumes.
Three weeks after this accident, Mr. Buttigieg went to the site, in the locality of East Palestine in Ohio, where the inhabitants expressed their concern and said they feared developing cancers in the years to come.
The secretary praised the “resilience” of the local population to the press and said that this accident showed the need for stricter regulations in the rail sector.
Asked if he had waited too long to comment on the derailment, Mr. Buttigieg replied “yes”.
“I had strong opinions about it and I could have expressed them earlier,” he said.
“I’ve gone to great lengths to respect the role I have and the role I don’t. But that should not have prevented me from giving my point of view on what was happening to this population, ”he added, explaining in particular that he wanted to let the investigators do their job.
On Thursday, while the secretary was in East Palestine, the government agency responsible for investigating transportation accidents, the NTSB, released its preliminary investigation report, stating that the crew aboard the train had received no a “critical” warning signal to inspect an overheated axle just before the derailment.
The day before, former Republican President Donald Trump visited East Palestine, where he criticized the Biden administration’s response to the accident.
Mr. Trump could “express his support for a reversal of deregulation that happened while he was in charge,” Mr. Buttigieg countered.
“I am here to work, not for political matters,” he added, advocating for stricter rail safety rules.
The secretary said that in recent years the business model followed by the railways has been to “cut, cut, cut” costs, and “that is a problem from a safety point of view”.
“The only real wall that can be erected against this is the regulations,” he insisted, mentioning among other things the number of staff members who must be on board a freight train.