Let's check in on the latest dangerous train wreck that just happened in the United States:
No, no, not that one. That was last month. The other one.
No, not that one either. That was a few weeks ago! This one:
A train car carrying roughly 30,000 gallons of propane was among six that derailed in Florida Tuesday in a scene first responders compared to a "minefield."
The six train cars fell off the tracks as a Seminole Gulf Railway train rode through Sarasota County, News Channel 8 WFLA reported. ...
"It looks like a minefield, honestly," Southern Manatee Fire Rescue Chief Robert Bounds told the local NBC affiliate station. "The cars are on their side. [The train] was in motion when it happened, so it wasn't just a tip-over, they really dug in and the tracks are pulled up and torn up."
The entire United States right now, all in unison:
Seriously. I know Mayor Pete insists that this happens literally 1,000 times per year. It's totally common, normal, nothing to be freaked out about.
But I gotta say I don't remember a time when trains regularly derailed with massive carloads of toxic and/or highly dangerous chemicals, ones that could either poison entire ecosystems or else blow up entire census-designated places in one blast.
That feels new. Doesn't that feel new? It doesn't feel familiar.
