Political Quotes

“this article, among other things, details how this train derailment threatened to leak hazardous chemicals, such as hydrochloric acid, into the main tunnel running under downtown Baltimore. They were able to stop that leak. This train derailment closed roads, broke fiberoptic communications cables, generated a water main break, caused evacuation of residents, and injured workers. While it was not one of the more serious things, it indicates how widespread this was: They canceled three Baltimore Orioles baseball games. They simply could not play with hazardous materials around. People could not get to the game. Baltimore was basically shut off. To show the cost to the business community, we have only to look at what happened to the Baltimore Orioles. Damages associated with just the lost baseball revenues are estimated at almost $5 million for the Baltimore Orioles. Is Baltimore an isolated example? Of course not. Between 1978 and 1995, as I said, over 260,000 people were evacuated across the Nation due to transportation accidents involving trains. There are some reasons why. The Federal Railroad Administration increased inspections and allocated few resources to ensure bridge safety across the Nation. Train derailments during that period increased 18 percent. Unfortunately, we do not have good statistics about the prevalence or damages associated with accidents such as the one in Baltimore.”