Buttigieg to visit scene of Ohio crash Thursday
Whereas within the jap Ohio neighborhood of about 5,000 folks, Buttigieg will obtain an replace from the Nationwide Transportation Security Board — the lead company investigating the crash — on its probe, which might take so long as 18 months to full. He’s additionally anticipated to meet with DOT officers who arrived on the bottom inside hours of the derailment.
Buttigieg’s visit comes as Republicans comparable to Florida Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio have sharply criticized his dealing with of the problem, together with his slowness to visit the scene of the derailment.
It’s exceedingly uncommon for a transportation secretary to visit the location of a practice derailment, particularly one which resulted in no fatalities — regardless that this crash has resulted in unusually heavy nationwide media consideration, partly pushed by the televised picture of the accident’s poisonous black plume and residents’ anger over the security of their air and water. About 1,000 practice derailments happen every year, in accordance to federal knowledge.
“The secretary goes now that the EPA has stated it’s transferring out of the emergency response part and transitioning to the long-term remediation part,” the particular person aware of Buttigieg’s considering informed POLITICO.
The journey comes the day after former President Donald Trump was anticipated to meet with locals Wednesday and ship cleansing provides and pallets of bottled water.
“The Division of Transportation will proceed to do its half by serving to get to the underside of what induced the derailment and implementing rail security measures, and we hope this sudden bipartisan help for rail security will lead to significant modifications in Congress,” DOT stated in an announcement Wednesday.
