Nearly three weeks after a toxic train derailment upended life in the village of East Palestine, Ohio, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg made his first visit to the community to meet with those affected on Thursday, Feb. 23, promising accountability and higher safety standards.
Noting that the National Transportation Security Board released its preliminary findings on the derailment earlier that morning, Buttigieg reassured that ensuring accountability would be a top priority for the administration.
“Having these factual findings is an important step to being able to move on to the phase of policymaking,” he told reporters at a press conference. “And while we will of course wait for [NTSB’s] analysis and recommendations at the end of the full process to make certain judgments, we will not wait for that process to run its course to continue doing everything we can to raise the bar on rail safety and to hold people accountable.”…