Secretary Buttigieg accuses Norfolk Southern of prioritizing profit over safety
The Ohio Health Department has opened a clinic in East Palestine in response to the toxic train derailment there. Officials hope to address mounting health concerns among residents after the controlled release of toxic chemicals on the train. Mona Khazar Abdi is in East Palestine with more. Norfolk Southern announcing more than seven tons of contaminated soil and over one million gallons of contaminated water have now been excavated from the derailment site. In a statement, the company adding that the material will be transported to landfills and disposal facilities that are designed to accept it safely. This as a much anticipated clinic staffed with Ohio Department of Health, CDC and HHS personnel is about to open. It's here to address health concerns of any resident, including the uninsured, after multiple complaints of skin, eye and throat irritation.
They're doing everything they can to take care of the community. We met 11-year-old Zach and his mom at this church turned into a Norfolk Southern reimbursement center. They have lived less than a mile from the crash site. He says when he and his older brother saw the fireball, they thought it was a house fire and drove closer to help. Ever since that incident happened, our face has been burning and it's really bad. Headaches, massive, almost passing out. Zach and his family are now living in a hotel.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg calling for new regulations, including increased inspections on routes trains used to transport toxic chemicals. It's unclear if such measures could have prevented a derailment like this one. And Mona Kuzarabdi joins me now from East Palestine, Ohio. Mona Pete Buttigieg also penned a sharply worded letter to Norfolk Southern Railway, accusing the company of repeatedly prioritizing profit over safety. How is Norfolk Southern responding to that? Well, Diane, a spokesperson for Norfolk Southern did tell ABC News that they received a copy of the letter from the secretary and they are reviewing it. And while the CEO, Alan Shaw, was in town here in East Palestine this weekend, he held a series of meetings with officials and also went door to door, just apologizing to the residents of East Palestine for the derailment. Norfolk Southern has also set up a reimbursement center inside a church where residents can get reimbursed for any derailment related expenses.
For example, if they were staying in a hotel for cleaning products and they're also writing inconvenience checks about $1,000 for people that live in certain zip codes, Diane.
Buttigieg, East, Norfolk, Ohio, Palestine, Secretary, Southern, abc, abcnl, accuses, chemicals, comments, derailed, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-97356887, prioritizing, profit, safety, secretary, toxic, train, transportation, update