Originally published at: Another train derailment, this time one carrying corn syrup | Boing Boing
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Sweet!
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Absolutely not. You need fruit, custard and cream for that.
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Corn syrup is still pretty bloody toxic tho.
Is it more so inside or outside our bodies? 
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Perhaps we need a wider gauge railroad? US standard-gauge is 4’8", broad-gauge is at 5’6" maybe we need double that to keep these things from tipping over. Super-broad-gauge!
Fun fact, broad-gauge is used on BART in the San Francisco area. Also used in India.
Right wingers will insist on the Stephenson-gauge.
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Maintaining track properly and not overloading trains would also solve the problem.
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I’m thinking there are surely countless events of this nature every year that go completely unregarded when they’re not happening in the wake of a much bigger and politically-interesting disaster.
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From the RailUKforums thread on the East Palestine crash:
Even allowing for the much greater numbers and lengths of freight trains in the US and Canada in comparison with Europe, their tolerance of frequent major derailments does surprise me. At a guess I’d estimate that a major derailment (10 or 20 wagons not just off the road, but piled in heaps, down in rivers, on fire, etc.) occurs pretty much every week on average. RJCorman* seem to have a large fleet of side-boom tractors on standby across most of the country, ready to go in to clear up the mess. They’re very quick to rebuild and reopen tracks, no doubt in part because they get so much practice.
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Maintaining the trains properly and operating them safely are also critical factors.
This is all about failure of regulatory responsibility. Failure both to maintain proper regulations and to enforce them effectively.
Railroads on their own will never do all they should to ensure safety because that would cut profits. Historically that’s one big reason rail worker unions were important. Ultimately though it requires federal safety laws and regulations.
But in the prevailing political climate since at least the 1980s, big money owners just lobby for “regulatory relief”, and get it. And the price railroads pay for these accidents is the preferred and lower cost of doing business.
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