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Railroad companies need to slow the trains down

| February 16, 2023 1:00 AM

Recently in a small town in Ohio, 50 train tank cars went off of the track and caught on fire. These tank cars were full of hazardous chemicals and it was so toxic the local fire department could not get close enough to put out the fires. The town and its inhabitants and all of the homes in the surrounding areas had to be evacuated. Two days later, all of those folks could still not go back to their homes or businesses.

Here in Sandpoint and surrounding areas, we recently have had two train derailments where cars went off of the tracks. All that was spilled were tons of corn from one derailment and tons of soybeans from another derailment. I know for a fact that those hundreds of train tank cars that pass thru Sandpoint and surrounding areas every day many of them are full of hazardous chemicals. So it’s inevitable that someday we possibly could have a tragedy just like those folks in Ohio are going through right now. I hope I’m not around when this happens.

What’s the answer, in my opinion? The railroad companies need to have rail inspectors checking every foot rail track at least every other day in towns and populated areas to be safe and also instruct the people operating those trains that have tank cars with hazardous chemicals to slow down.

LEN GOLDING

Sandpoint