When Hell Came to Ohio: The East Palestine Train Crash

[@Visceral_Biperfication_IX]

It is sad, as an Ohio resident, I got more information about what happened from a guy in Prague than my own local government. Thanks for your coverage!!!!

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

Sadly, that is the status quo. If anyone wants to know about X, Y, or Z, it's nearly guaranteed that they'd need to ignore their "local media". And why? Simple. Corporations own the media. If it doesn't favor 'em, you ain't seein' it locally.

[@KoRntech]

Remember DeWine didn't want any help until it was already a complete Clusterfck, JD taking aim with his new rifle at the sky and the conspiracy channels saying this was on purpose to contaminate the crops. 😐

[@CkFeeful]

Thunderfoot is the goat

[@anthonyward8853]

To be fair, the KZbin channel Practical Engineering did a video about this disaster in April of 2023. That video goes far more into the hows and whys.

[@zerowingsx1]

All of this was public information though. Simon just had an amazing way with words.

[@stevenpotter8451]

I'm a US railroader, and you missed a lot of the most important info. NS knew about there was an axle overheating for a long time before accident. It triggered warnings at multiple previous defect detectors, but NS decided not to warn the crew. This is called a trending axle warning and crews used to be notified immediately by detectors, however to save money and prevent delays railroads no longer let detectors warn train crews of defects directly, except for the most extreme ones. Under the old system, that car would have been inspected by the crew and if visually defective or if overheated, would have set out from the train. If they couldn't find an issue it would have bern set out from the train anyways after the second defect detector flagged it. The crew was warned by the third detector when it was too late. This is what was told to me by an NS employee. I can't share too much do the fact that railroads fire their employees for speaking out too much. Most bad derailments today are absolutely preventable though. Trains are too long, training for crews is too short, and maintenance is terrible. But corporate profits are at all time highs.

[@mikebalonek]

I was just at the Railroad Workers United conference in Chicago and heard that same thing. Thanks for sharing this important info!

[@NoVaRedacted]

Wish we could talk about energy management running trains too, but of course we get fired for speaking out.

[@CRnsRR99]

No they didn’t know.. I am a US railroader too for NS… this video missed a lot, and repeated lies. ECP was a dead tech in 2010.

[@CRnsRR99]

What movie was this?

[@NoVaRedacted]

Wait until you learn about AI running trains. Google talos energy management system

[@bubbathedm]

My favorite part was when they shut down the water intake system on the Ohio river in Cincinnati and yet had the gall to tell us everything was fine

[@jonsturgill8868]

Your elected leaders hard at work.

[@ShawnC.W-King]

Elected RED STATE EVERYTHING "leadership" at work, from the top on down to the scummy governor who pretended to drink water in somebody house n' be like "yeah, the water is fine!" 🙄 ​@@jonsturgill8868

[@zeitgeistx5239]

You don’t understand the concept of regulatory capture. Railroads are federally regulated and don’t answer to local or state authorities. And they control their regulatory agency. So they don’t have to say anything to local or state authorities as they effectively answer themselves. Think about why the news rarely ever talks about the over 1,000 railroad accidents that happens per year in the U.S.

[@MrAracag]

My favorite is the fact that the u.s government is planning on reducing the number of staff on these doom trains by at least half...

[@bedeckt]

Republicans :-)

[@GrumpyIan]

I remember this. The mayor said the water was safe to drink. The community disagreed, so he made a video fake drinking the water.

[@daciajcksn]

He must have been watching the Flint MI mayor and Obama fake drink the lead tainted water 😒

[@almightysosa3007]

Such a weasel, wonder how much those companies paid the mayor to cover it up

[@unocoltrane2804]

That's like the stunt pulled by a British politician in the 90s during the mad cow scare. He and his unwitting daughter ate burgers on national television to covince everyone that British beef was safe despite the evidence to the contrary.

[@Psalm-119]

​@@almightysosa3007... Norfolk Southern has been giving donations to these guys for years. Sadly it was payback time.

[@L0U1SE]

So dodgy. Your government is absolutely rubbish

[@gothicfairy2407]

As someone who lives in PA and at most 30 minutes away from East Palestine, this whole saga was wild. We had air and water warnings, could see the effects of the crash, and we got more information from our officials than the Ohioans did.

[@kaecake9575]

It's okay. Israel is getting help.

[@bellamyhibler]

i live in Ashtabula County ohio and we could smell it for weeeeeeks

[@DAFORCEFilms]

@@bellamyhiblerI could only smell it when I drove over the bridge on 51 that was maybe half a mile from the wreckage. Aside from that, it dissipated pretty quickly in Lawrence County.

[@ikonic_artworks]

Pittsburgh PA area had the same deal. we're 150 miles away.

[@alex-jblack337]

Yeah We heard alarms, saw national guard in helicopters, and even saw explosions from the scene itself. I have photo proof of it.

[@Ryutensie]

As a NE Ohio resident, glad you got many of the pronunciations correct both cities and counties. Also nice to see something more than a cursory glance at this incident.

[@SonSon-jw2dp]

Yeah that b role of Philly tho was funny.

[@miloanderson4359]

Remember kiddos, when the local, state and federal government says they’re here to help, everything is fine and don’t panic: they won’t, it’s not, and you should definitely panic.

[@TerryHausenn]

I wonder what implications this will have for future crop production in the area...How much grains and bread will be tainted with this poison? Coming to a store near you...

[@whotf888]

​@@TerryHausenn remember that none of the lands near the site of the derailment are owned by the elite. It also happened near the time it got out that Gates is buying up massive plots of land.

[@darkadmiral106]

If the Government says its safe, then its definetly not.

[@Captain_Caveman1981]

I agree with everything you said, except the panic part. You should take it seriously no doubt but panicking gets you nowhere.

[@jasoncanada8178]

Thats why you go ghost on them buy a used car with cash or trade, dont register it, that way its in your name but not their system, and basically sy FU to any federal,state or local govnt, whats more free than that

[@AaronScottLawford]

I think we will all know the outcome of some of the investigations. Corporate greed, lack of maintenance or time to do maintenance, crew push to rush, rush, rush to maximise profits and bullying to prevent people reporting issues or purposely hiring reports of issues.

[@raptorskilltor4554]

Don’t forget the hush hush money the Ohioan were paid to stay silent

[@yzer]

Fines and payouts low enough that everything written off as just the of doing business. No meaningful legislation to prevent future occurrences.

[@matteste]

Second Thought did a great video on this topic a while ago. And suffice to say, he had no nice things to say about this incident and all the potential corruption behind it.

[@sapphirejade5029]

​@matteste I may have not seen the video you're talking about, but I could tell that PURE avarice and corruption was responsible. They shouldn't have been lackadaisical. They should've inspected everything! I'd do it twice to be sure everything was working properly if I was there.

[@scarpfish]

Also known as business as usual in America.

[@shanewilson9814]

I live about 100 miles directly downwind, that week at least, from this fire. Everyone i know had mild headaches clear up to the migraines i suffered for a week or so when this happened. No one slept because of a weird restlessness... it definitely was more severe than was claimed.

[@ps3beatswii]

Y'know, I think that was the week I began developing insomnia.

[@quietreader4190]

@@ps3beatswii That has to suck massively, I don't have insomnia but I heard it can be hell sometimes.

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

the symptoms you describe could easily be the result of mass-hysteria induced paranoia... if there is something you fear very much, it is no surprise you cannot sleep, and worrying can often give you a headache... so, though there is a good chance it was chemically induced, that will be something we will see only when & if the people in your neighborhood will start getting all sorts of Cancers and other long term effects... a mild exposure is near impossible to actually distinguish from a Placebo poisoning.

[@musicalDrebin]

my greatest fear is one day Simmon will say the name of my town, followed by 'it was a sleepy little American town... until'

[@Aura-Of-Syrinx]

I still swear they are going to find shit in the water table in a year or two; sometimes it takes a decade for problems to become noticeable the fact they dumped it then burnt it in an unlined pit right there is absolutely INSANE

[@rixxroxxk1620]

I live in a small town in MD where the local tool manufacturing company buried EVERYTHING on there property. Toluene, benzine, PCB’s, you name it. Thirty years later, half the wells are still shut off. Nasty stuff.

[@brandyjean7015]

​@@rixxroxxk1620they were complete shites.

[@brandyjean7015]

Big mistake, big, huge...and epically stupid.

[@andiward7068]

Last Week Tonight did an ep on train regs & accidents that included E.P. if you want more on the overall subject with some humor, gallows tho it will be.

[@Lobonova]

Test show its still in air and water.

[@sjenny5891]

Never thought Simon would do a video on something my family has gone through. This feels creepy.

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

I'm thoroughly, overwhelmingly disappointed in mankind because of this incident and dozens more. Humanity is *supposedly* better than this. More "intelligent". But from my perspective, it's simply not the case. The evidence clearly states that humans do not have the SLIGHTEST idea what they're doing with their limited years, months, and hours. It's embarrassing.

[@jessicak2811]

I know, I was in shock to see Factboi talking about my town!

[@kdawg2446]

yep it really does.

[@AlexBaldwin440]

Hey a Simon video I can add input on!!. I worked for Norfolk Southern for 8 years, quitting in 2022. I traveled through East Palestine almost on a daily basis traveling from Bellevue, Ohio to Conway, Pennsylvania. Once the class one railroads adopted Precision Scheduled Railroading they made many cuts to personal. They doubled if not trippled the length of trains, cut the inspectors that looked over rail cars, and gave them a time limit of 45 seconds per rail car. Any inspector will tell you that you need at least 90 seconds to see both sides if the car. I was a conductor, and knee it was only a matter of time before something like this would happen. Many railroaders tried to raise the alarm but nobody listened.

[@nickolaiorlov4732]

ooooh i live there!!! oh i live there...

[@j.a.weishaupt1748]

Congratulations and my condolences

[@FallenMuse81]

What have you noticed about the general health and safety? Plus pets.

[@Oly876]

Your mom too?

[@jessicak2811]

I do too!! Hiya, neighbor!!

[@kaecake9575]

Israel took the spotlight 🤫

[@madezra64]

I work for an MSP Ohio nearby East Palestine and one of our clients offices is there. I had just started my first on-call shift ever for this MSP and it was a pretty quiet night up until about 9:20 PM when I started receiving alerts for their servers going down. I followed protocol and tried reaching out to the client. They didn't pick up so I left a voicemail and began tediously trying to troubleshoot and figure out what has happened. Not long after they call me back, and that's when they told me "Yeah a train just de-railed across from our office and everything is on fire, so I quickly ran down to the office and ripped out all our servers to take home. They're safe here with me now!" LIKE BRUH WHAT?! Dude I was actually GENUINELY concerned for his life and completely forgot about the servers for a moment. I kept asking him if he was okay and that we will do anything we can to help. We soon got off the phone and I notified our team. During this time news began blowing up and the scale began to became clear. I actually think our client is crazy!! But hey, I get it. That business is his life.

[@barrydysert2974]

Worst than you know!?!? Worse than you know•

[@KawaiiKasai]

Worst *that* you know

[@kathryncumberland]

​@@KawaiiKasaiI really don't think that's what they were going for...

[@kathryncumberland]

One would think a British dude could speak proper English, lol! (Not that I think he's the one who actually wrote that.)

[@GBsavant]

@@kathryncumberlandthe average Brit barely speaks legible english

[@MrThechadman24]

Wurst than ewe no.

[@JohnMassey-q5l]

Great video Simon and crew! Chemist here. Phosgene was one of the gases used during WWI. Exposure to benzene can cause aplasic anemia

[@steventicknor8059]

I’ve been a part of a small phosgene incident where some was found in 2 vile’s as an old booby trap on a large safe in a construction site I worked on. We shut down the whole Main Street downtown area and had to have many official people get involved. Luckily the vile’s stayed intact and were properly disposed of at the cost of $20,000. We had no idea what was in the vile’s till we researched the safe and when Phosgene popped up we evacuated very quickly. When the fire department/ hazmat heard Phosgene they went into full blown emergency mode and the level of protective equipment went to full on end of the world movie hazmat gear. It was considered one of the deadliest chemicals to ever be used in war and killed countless soldiers in the trenches and even more over time. Such a dangerous chemical apocalyptic is a very justifiable description for those stuck breathing the air in that area.

[@rebeccahahn6172]

How long would it take for the fall out of this to poison my father's well in a small town 11 miles north of the cite?

[@Dr_SummerGDavis]

Thanks for scratching that science itch 🫶

[@steelvalleysportsmen7737]

I'm from the Youngstown area, this was awful. The rain afterwards left a white film on everything and some people said it felt funny on their skin.

[@kaecake9575]

Meanwhile. Israel took the spotlight

[@TerryHausenn]

It never goes away, either.

[@probably-nobody]

I live a few minutes from there. One of my cousins was even a firefighter on the scene. I always find it interesting how everything I've heard about this after that first week has been from people online. Nobody around here talks about it. I actually forgot about it until I saw this.

[@heraclitus6100]

So is it a big deal or are people just ravenous for content to report on?

[@mr.z3664]

Found the guy that spreads misinformation and straight up lies. Not a chance in hell that you live anywhere near there, let alone have a cousin that "was" a firefighter there.

[@katiek4538]

I grew up a few minutes from Darlington, & my folks still live there. They seem totally unconcerned. Life goes on, I guess.

[@jessicak2811]

As an East Palestine resident I'd never have thought that we'd be on one of Factboi's channels!!!

[@Joe_Dirt82]

I live near by. Girlfriend and I went there last year. Train cars still there and roads still closed. A guest on Redonkulas explained that they cut the crew down to skeleton crews so bad that they can't actually run but are forced to to keep their jobs.

[@mr.z3664]

Whoever wrote this episode knows what the current situation is, unfortunately their political ideology prevents them from holding Joe Biden and his administration accountable for anything, as the video showed... it's obviously Trumps fault.

[@chlorineismyperfume]

It's still there?!??

[@jakobofcincy]

I ain't visited east palestine since then but I only live about an hour away.

[@kaecake9575]

Israel took the spotlight 🤫

[@derekblair1645]

Simon I love your channels. I grew up 20 minutes from East Palestine and still live in the area, thank you for doing a video on this!!!!

[@spencerclabaugh9055]

As an Ohioan thank you for this Simon.

[@RoySATX]

Don't thank him yet, remember who Simon is. I suspect this is a preliminary psy-op meant to eventually shield many people from blame. And its not like he could resist pointing the finger to "fringe media" and "conspiracy theorists" for exaggerating the event. Let's see where this leads before assuming Simon is truly concerned or if the conspiracy theorist in me is right yet again.

[@PatriceRacine]

Can you cover the Lac Mégantic train crash in Québec, Canada? That was the worst case scenario with the train derailing in the center of town with his fuel cargo and killing dozens of people

[@coltringcoltring7448]

Yep 47 peoples. Almost 11 years in a couple of months

[@railfandepotproductions]

​@@coltringcoltring7448*lives lost

[@cantsay2205]

I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but given my upbringing in the foster care system, I know all too well that yes, the government WOULD do *insert bad thing here*. Gleefully.

[@I_Ruby_I]

Train companies need to be heavily investigated and need to be heavily fined to the point of near bankruptcy for every single failure. The small fines are not good enough anymore.

[@TerryHausenn]

Look up the ladder and see which official oversees this particular area of railroad transportation. Its very interesting :)

[@Kat-tr2ig]

My family lives in nearby Salem, Ohio, and the train was on fire when it passed through the town, before derailing in East Palestine. They heard about what happened from friends, as it wasn't on the news...there definitely was an attempt to cover it up, at least at first

[@jessicak2811]

I grew up in Salem! Graduated from there too. I've lived in Palestine for the last several years though, after I moved back to the area.

[@MidnightArticuno]

Thank you for pronouncing East Palestine correctly. I’m from that area and was annoyed when the news at the time would not pronounce it like -teen. (It’s like how Versailles, Indiana is pronounced “Ver-sales”, not the French way)

[@FRISHR]

Train has the right to defend itself from East Palestine!

[@giladpellaeon1691]

Profits over people, the real motto of America.

[@braaandon5716]

Being a railfan, this news spread MINUTES after the derailment, pictures were out within minutes. A person in a facebook group for NS east coast railfans heard about it on his scanner, and all hell broke out soon after

[@slothachunk]

The EPA outsourced testing of the water and air and just signed off on it. Who did they outsource it to? Companies in cahoots with chemical suppliers. No surprise at all when the water and air were privately tested the true answers were found. The U.S. does this all the time akin to cops investigating their own crimes.

[@60sSam]

Not just the USA, every country on this Earth does the exact same thing to cover up their own foul ups.

[@darstar217]

The problem is that the executives of that train company don’t and can’t feel guilty about the situation.

[@sapphirejade5029]

Oh~ I'm betting they will be when they're gone.

[@matt3570]

@@sapphirejade5029 Even if anyone does resign over anything revealed in the eventual final accident report, they'll just be getting chunky severance packages on the way out and probably still wont care one bit sadly. Accountability doesn't exist for the rich 90% of the time unfortunately.

[@CantHandleThisCanYa]

@@sapphirejade5029 if you're implying that they will suffer in some sort of afterlife… Gods do not exist and religion is delusion. Consequences and accountability need to be in the here and now because that's the only thing that exists in reality. Afterlifes do not exist.

[@MrThechadman24]

​@@CantHandleThisCanYa I have never heard this perspective on the argument for/against religion and I like it.

[@rebeccahahn6172]

Let's make them all breakfast smoothies... from ice from Sulfur Creek.

[@TheSantaFeGuy]

From Ohio, Im glad you pronounced East Palestine correctly

[@bob_._.]

I was thinking that. But also that Simon's accent is so all over the place that it could be his normal pronunciation.

[@FirelandsAccounting]

In Sandusky Ohio people were feeling it. I can only imagine there. So cool. I was hoping you'd do this one!

[@83gemm]

I live in southern Ohio and the river runs right past me. We were told for days that there was a big black death cloud coming our way. I do Instacart as a side gig and the day before it was supposed to reach us our stores RAN OUT of bottled water. They had to ship in more pallets of it and it just flew off the shelves. It annoyed me because everyone waited til the last second. As far as I know, no big death cloud came our way. But I delivered 12 40- packs of water to one address that day. A personal best. It was horrifying to watch how everything up north got hushed up. They changed the info every day. I would imagine the town is permanently screwed and we won’t know for years how bad it all really was.

[@nickiegoldinhart]

Ashtabula County Ohio here, we were fortunate to have the wind in our favor here but we all were nervous for the people there.

[@20JK10]

This is still one of the best and most un-biased informational channels on youtube. Keep up the good work.

[@hannahp1108]

The way this was handled, both on the local and national level, was so bad. I don't even live close but it's clear that it was mishandled.

[@aaronhrynyk]

The train company didn’t have to ignite the chemicals: they did that to open the tracks for more train traffic. Then the EPA outsourced air and water testing, who has conflict of interest issues being connected to chemical companies.

[@nicolasimpsonkhullar986]

I’d love to see a sister video on the Lac-Mégantique train disaster in Québec.

[@aaronhrynyk]

Did the government try to cover that up, too?

[@talizorahnarrayya5916]

​ Not that I'm aware. It was widely publicized across Québec with News team on site filming while it was still burning in the background . @@aaronhrynyk

[@beyondobscure]

I remember this. I lived only 70 miles away from Ground Zero. I fear I'll be feeling the effects of this ten years later.

[@CheekyMenace]

70 MILES!? I think you'll be okay. Just can't help but try to force yourself into the story, can you.

[@GraniteStateofMind]

@@CheekyMenacepeople 100+ miles away could see the smoke and smell the chemicals…

[@beyondobscure]

@@CheekyMenace There were advisories as far away as Cincinnati, the chemicals were smelled in Cleveland, and people a hundred miles away had headaches for a week; I know I certainly did. Pretty sure you're trolling though, judging that last sentence.

[@TerryHausenn]

@@CheekyMenace Idk if you know this but there is a thing called wind that blows stuff great distances...

[@joshuabruner9676]

thanks for covering this

[@Davidsavage8008]

Stock holders should be liable.

[@capttr1ps115]

I live here. Thanks for the coverage Simon

[@williamjanak2013]

I found it odd that you never mentioned at least in the conspericy section, that the burn off was not needed. That the train companies forced that option to open up the tracks faster. Not caring at all for the impact it would have. Good video as always.

[@roscojenkins7451]

What's better is that their payout to the residents doesn't even equate to 1/8 of their profits for a single year... That's not a punishment... That's a cost of doing business as usual

[@Crrazzy218]

He also forgot to mention the contaminated soil they tried to cover to open the rails faster. Then had to go back and dig up and remove it after they were caught. I live near one of the incineration plants that received said contaminated soil. I like Simon's take on things most of the time, but this one was a miss for me. Felt like he almost down played the entire catastrophe.

[@hannelis19]

The burn off going wrong as well and them initially lying about it and finally coming out to say that it went wrong prompting further issues. This whole thing has so much more to it that it could be an hour long episode no problem with facts that were released alone.

[@NotoriousKrugs]

I believe the CDC even edited their acceptable PPM of vinyl chloride that they published back in 2006 shortly after this "accident"

[@andiward7068]

They "had to" because the alternative of cleaning it up was too expensive and time consuming. Capitalism at is finest.

[@eeik5150]

Thank you so much for making sure you pronounced the town as the locals do. This is one of the things I love about your videos. You even got my hometown correct, unlike Mr. Ballen.

[@monkeymantrades]

thanks for bringing attention to this...but.. as someone that is dealing with the effects of this disaster from 25 miles away...it is absolutely much worse than you imagine...and infinitely worse than the casual presentation on this video

[@DomyTheMad420]

10:10 while i do NOT think this applies to most/all of these cases i feel it very important to mention: "tell a town that a chemical spill happened in the town square overnight but was cleaned up and you'll find that a decent chunk of the town will suddenly develop mystery symptoms and other medical problems that doctor's can't seem to pin down. give them a specific chemical name to look up and the mystery symptoms will start to include the symptoms linked to that chemical." note: this is not intentional. this is just basic human psychology. makes it rather hard to collect actual data on medical issues post any chemical accidents. SADLY the most reliable and accurate method is to wait a decade or two and count the corpses using autopsy reports..

[@zanesweeten2523]

As Wendigoon said said “and remember kids, if the government says they wouldn’t, they will.”

[@eyeroll5060]

Im so glad to see this vid. I was just talking yesterday about how the media has pretty much forgot about it

[@valkyrie013]

For an Idea for a future episode. Just do Train Derailments, and the lack of upkeep on the US train lines by the companies.

[@kylerocco7467]

I live in Youngstown thank you for covering this.

[@JoshDerenburger]

Three things that shouldn't be ignored 1. The local news here didn't do a good job at covering this incident 2. The feds didn't weem to care until they got a lot of backlash 3. As the contam water went down the ohio river all the cities from all the neighboring states closed their water intake

[@BobB-w4q]

I am a US citizen. What happened in the Ohio derailment is unfortunately not unusual. Not only hazardous chemicals, but even military munitions move by rail. I spent my childhood near Sacramento, California and I can remember a train carrying gravity bombs (on their way to Vietnam) caught fire while the train was moving through the nearby town of Roseville. I clearly remember the bombs going off in the fire causing glassware in my parent's kitchen to rattle.

[@tripsaplenty1227]

not unusual? Your example is from 50 years ago.

[@BobB-w4q]

@@tripsaplenty1227 That is just one of many examples from across time.

[@tripsaplenty1227]

@@BobB-w4q "Many across time" Can you be more vague? what else you got? The big ones I remember are oil spills not rail related. Exxon-Valdez and Deepwater Horizon.

[@tripsaplenty1227]

"Many examples across time" That's awfully vague and evidenceless.

[@BobB-w4q]

@@tripsaplenty1227 Would you like another example from my personal experience? I now live in northern Illinois, about 40 miles outside of the Chicago city limits. A train carrying chemicals derailed near the town where I lived at the time, spilling chemicals into the river providing water to areas near Rockford, Illinois. The aquifer was affected requiring shutdown of certain wells feeding water to two communities.

[@tripsaplenty1227]

Hell didn't arrive in Ohio. Ohio is and always has been hell.

[@keip4568]

Even a local I know said the same before this

[@bmstylee]

Hey. At least we're not Detroit......or Baltimore.

[@aceundead4750]

​@@bmstylee parts of Detroit have been getting better. Small parts, but parts.

[@tripsaplenty1227]

@@bmstylee Don't be badmouthing the birthplace of The Star Spangled Banner.

[@Phearsum]

@@tripsaplenty1227 Go to West Baltimore and keep that same energy. 😧

[@sapphirejade5029]

I remembered that day so much. You could say I'm appx an hour from the town. My heart was racing when it happened on the news that day. I'm upset and heartbroken that HUNDREDS of people have moved out of East Palestine. They LET it burn, and the price is greater than ever. I'm just so angered that Norfolk Southern let this happen. They shouldn't have been lazy. They should've checked EVERYTHING on those trains. We wouldn't be talking about this horrible tragedy if they checked EVERYTHING.

[@mikea5923]

That’s not possible. Do you know how much time and manpower that’d take? The problem is Trump roles back train regulations that would have detected issues like this. Typical trump. Profits over people.

[@MashedJoetatoes]

I live all the way East in New Hampshire, just about as far East in the US you can go from this disaster besides the state of Maine, and also just happen to be located right underneath where the weather patterns from Ohio come from. For the whole week during this disaster, the rain left a white film on all our vehicles and dark surfaces outside. ALL parking lots that had rain puddles had a rainbow color liquid floating around in the puddles, and I don't believe it was fuel or oil products. The fact that we in NH, five states and a 10 hour drive away from Ohio, were [likely] seeing the environmental ramifications from this disaster, means Ohio and surrounding Pennsylvania must be absolutely affected in the long term. I pray for you all.

[@NATO32Nations]

Never thought a small Ohio town would ever be mentioned by a KZbin giant like this.

[@CheekyMenace]

If a train hadn't derailed there, they wouldn't.

[@TheCoasterSerpent]

Norfolk Southern should be sued out of existence, and East Palestine should be designated a super fund site. The US Government should buy up all of the property at generous rates for all who want to leave. Absolutely deplorable management on the part of Norfolk Southern. They should be subject to more stringent regulation and the government should start inspecting trains and the rails they travel on.

[@bob_._.]

How about instead of someone suing NS out of existence (may I presume you mean the government, ie. US taxpayers), then having Superfund (ie. US taxpayers) pay for the cleanup and the US government (ie. US taxpayers) buy out the residents, why not have NS foot the bill for the buyout and cleanup, which will probably bankrupt them and they'll be out of business without large expense to the US taxpayers and CSX can take over operations for a song.

[@cdavid8139]

@@bob_._. NS going out of business would but thousands of people out of work. Would drive hundreds of thousands of trucks out on the road where accidents are much more prevalent. The cost to taxpayers would be massive. The increased cost to consumers massive. CSXT's safety record is similar to that of NS so no huge gain there and if you understood bankruptcy laws even a tiny bit you would understand the cost to take over NS by any railroad would be massive.

[@amazingspidermew]

Living about an hour away, I remember seeing the noxious cloud of smoke in the sky and still remember the rank smell in the breeze afterwards. They really downplayed how bad this was.

[@Janaglass29]

The irony the town is named east Palestine

[@dilldowschwagginz2674]

I'm from Ohio. Railroad tracks criss cross the entire state, many running east/west. Trains don't just randomly derail. The peculiar derailments started in 2021 and they have all had some highly unusual and suspicious details surrounding them. I know more than the general public (including Simon) due to having 11 family members who have worked for NS stretching back to the 70's. Calling it "conspiracy theory" is a popular way to shut down any discourse that particular powerful people dont like.

[@TerryHausenn]

A fun thing to do is research the origin of the term conspiracy theory and who first coined it! Quite interesting

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

Corporate corruption at the highest level with ethics at the very lowest: non-existent. 🙄 Stay classy, humanity.

[@WillHuizenga]

Thank you for covering this.

[@jackzimmer6553]

Ahhh yes. Big business and big government at their very best! Haven’t we learned anything from other environmental disasters like Love Canal?? I feel so sorry for those affected by this mismanagement. What a nightmare!

[@phillipstrait9387]

Picture was not E.Palestine OH at minute 4:17 is Columbus Ohio 2hrs West

[@hannelis19]

I had the same thought

[@KoRntech]

I think we can forgive him, at least it wasn't Pittsburgh. I do wish when these channels make these they do feelers for insight on the area especially when they themselves cannot come to the area.

[@Cool-Tina]

I pass through East Palestine regularly when heading to the Pittsburgh area from my side of the Cleveland area. I admit to shifting my route for a while after the event and I still give it a side-eye when I'm turning onto OH-165. 😬

[@3percentmick705]

I’m a dispatcher for NS and was working when 32n derailed. Not a great night at work.

[@tdumford1]

I live a couple hundred miles away in Cincinnati and we even had water and air warning.

[@ShirleyPotts-ud3nb]

Just heartbreaking for East Palestine Ohio.

[@steventicknor8059]

We had a Norfolk southern train wreck in a small town in South Carolina about a mile from my house. Fortunately it derailed at the city line in a secluded wooded area so no one was injured. It too had numerous airborne and explosive chemicals and we had to evacuate initially a 2 mile radius. Luckily we also have a nuclear plant in the county so our hazmat and emergency response teams are well trained and were very quick to respond. As a deputy I had to guard the area around the overturned train cars. It was a very unsettling scene that took a good while to finally clear up.

[@bob_._.]

Just curious, were you provided with hazmat gear? So many times in situations like that it seems you see the cops just standing there being cops, ya'know?

[@steventicknor8059]

@@bob_._. No gear we were assured the air had been tested clear by time we were assigned as security. I definitely asked about it but our local emergency management chief who I was friends with gave me this info so I trusted it. The only issues were on the ground as some had spilled and we were to keep people from messing around the mangled cars and contaminated soil. It’s a running joke that fire/medics use the police as the canary in the mine because they rush in blindly and only after they have been exposed rush back out. Technically the police don’t need the gear as they should be handling the perimeter traffic and evacuation not the hazmat.

[@JamesM-b7j]

I regularly drink water from the faucet. My city is downstream of East Palestine. 2 days after the accident, drinking the tap water made me extremely dizzy. My family drank only bottled water for 3 weeks after. We're ~500 miles from the "controlled burn". I can't imagine what the environmental effect has been.

[@dantebarto]

I live outside of that town. You can smell the foul air for weeks.

[@jessicak2811]

Honestly when I come into town after I've been gone for awhile, I can STILL smell it. It reminds me of burnt plastic and another smell I can't quite put my finger on.

[@dantebarto]

@@jessicak2811 I saved rain samples for the week after the event. I bought a chemical testing kit and it flagged for high levels of chemicals. Still have the samples.

[@Mephilic]

Ohio has grown more and more corrupt between stuff like this and politicians collaborating with the power companies. Ohio has been getting more and more sketch.

[@thejuize06]

Quick summary; profit is more important than people

[@boudicaastorm4540]

I think I heard the same train company had at least 2 more derailments within a few months following this. He may have mentioned it, my brain's a bit foggy. But these types of incidents absolutely need to be followed by scientists for the long term, because we all know we've had things like the Love Canal and such where you don't see the terminal illnesses and other long-term problems show up right away.

[@ethankenny3477]

My mom lived there at the time. Crazy lady wasn't worried about nothing.

[@thehomeschoolinglibrarian]

Well this is concerning. My parent's were in Youngstown in June of last year to deal with my great aunts estate and my mom ended up in ICU with heart and lung problems in July and then died at the end of September. I wonder if exposure to this mess contributed to it.

[@rebeccahahn6172]

If an autopsy was done, I'd be tracking down those records if I were you. I am so sorry for your loss.

[@ExperimentIV]

now do lac mégantic, because THAT was literally hellfire

[@bffvintage8162]

I think several disaster channels here on KZbin have done it. And yes it was horrible.

[@dylancurry8032]

I’m from ohio. What was really troubling was how long mainstream media was silent on the derailment

[@slothachunk]

Troubling yet not surprising. It's not in their best interests to report on news that will potentially lose them money. That's what happens when almost all of media is owned by 6 corporations.

[@aaronhrynyk]

@@slothachunkyup, and one of those 6 corporations also own the parent company of Norfolk southern.

[@TheNightquaker]

Hell comes to Ohio. What, so it's double hell then?

[@AxisGMD2010]

*Hazbin Hotel flashbacks intensify*

[@Verdictus13]

Just the US defending itself from the existential threat that is Ohio

[@rebeccahahn6172]

Buffy told us there's a hellmouth in Cleveland which would explain a few things in the last couple hundred years, at least.

[@bob_._.]

Yup. But it's still not that State up North.

[@PaulRichardson-jh4gc]

"worst" ? If you do that so people like myself can't help but to engage then it's brilliant!

[@laurenpegg9006]

It's so fun living the after effects of these chemical spills. The MOV C8 Dupont crisis and the numerous train derailments happened upstream from us.

[@paultidwell8799]

Oooooo a man made disaster, relevant to my interest. I love learning about Nuclear catastrophes too.

[@jbeachley18]

I love the random cuts to images of a big city, definitely not East Palestine 😅 but this video has been more informative than any of the news coverage I've seen on it, and I live about an hour away.

[@rebeccahahn6172]

That's Columbus, the state capital, which had air quality warnings up for at least 24 hr. when the train company demanded they get to expose the residents and local farms to burn off so the tracks could be cleared faster. It's relevant.

[@jondough206]

i live here in east palestine. i was told to leave my house at 2am in the morning by state troopers. lived in my car for 3 days. at the time i was very disappointed with the rail road and all officials involved. but looking back now, I'm mostly grateful there was zero casualties!

[@mathiasslim]

Interesting, I really expected more comprehensive coverage of this from Plainly Difficult as opposed to one of Simon's channels.

[@chrismorgan9291]

Props for getting the name right. So many people even here in Ohio can’t even do that

[@samw5644]

of all people i could run into, i ran into a couple from east palestine during the train crash there, on a train in finland. was both bizzare and quite sad to hear them talk about it.

[@Tortall2012]

I work in a laboratory in Minnesota that sent at least two employees to one of our branches in Ohio to help with the immediate response. The rest of us took over that laboratory’s regular client workload for several months and we still periodically receive samples of soil, water, and other matrices from this site. I now live nearer to freight train tracks than I have my entire life (my place of work is literally across the road from the tracks and the freight yard). It’s instances like this that can sometimes keep me up at night especially due to the location of these tracks (they go through the middle of the Twin Cities inner metro).

[@TheKalaxis]

Man Palestine just can't catch a break....

[@MrRMT1986]

Free East Palestine!

[@kdawg2446]

no we really can't.

[@TheBuckeyeHistoryGuy1776]

3:25 would not expect to hear my home town be mention on one of Simeon’s videos

[@chillausmc]

Nov 2 2022 St James Acid Leak. These folks were living right next to the line and 200 homes were evacuated. Scary to think of the types of cargo and the amounts in tow just end up in your back yard.

[@cameronmadden8723]

Do an episode on the uptick in industrial and economic accidents in the light of espionage

[@gumpyoldbugger6944]

You should look into the Lac-Mégantic, PQ rail disaster, it was even worse that the East Palestine event.

[@brandisummers23]

Love your videos

[@alex-jblack337]

I live here, I got photos. The first fire was not as crazy but they said they set off bombs to clear the air of the toxic chemicals and it made the fire look like a nuclear bomb hit the town. I swear it on my life it was scary.

[@kieranklein2527]

Glad I moved out years ago. This town was 20min away

[@sapphirejade5029]

I hope everything is going well for you. Just seeing those images of East Palestine burn frightened me so much.

[@kieranklein2527]

@@sapphirejade5029 oh I'm fine thanks. Just surreal seeing a town you grew up near for most of my life have such an accident.

[@sapphirejade5029]

@@kieranklein2527 I know... It's heartbreaking😔

[@ross.neuberth]

This. This right here is exactly why so many Americans do not want money going to Ukraine, Israel or anywhere else. If the US Government cannot step in and properly help when disaster strikes at home, why should that money/focus/energy be going overseas instead. Please make it make sense. This seems like a fundamental breakdown in the social contract to me.

[@ricardosaenz569]

I was flying home during this and have pictures out the window of the black smoke as the plane flew past the area