Fact-checking Trumps I have nothing to do with these statements after the Ohio train derailment

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At a McDonalds in East Palestine, Ohio, former President Donald Trump picked up the lunch tab for first responders and expressed his own view of the Biden administration’s response to the train derailment in that community.

A reporter at the restaurant asked Trump about US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigiegs “criticism of your rollback of rail regulations.”

Trump replied: “I had nothing to do with it.” Another person asked Trump how he felt about being blamed for “some of the railroad problems.” Trump replied, “It’s really hard to believe.”

Trump’s critics cried foul about his “nothing to do with it” statement, pointing to evidence that the Trump administration changed a rule related to train breaks in 2018, something we documented in a previous fact-check. So in that respect, he has something to do with railroad regulations.

But the details of the Obama-era rule reversed by the Trump administration do not apply to the Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed in Ohio.

The Trump administration has reversed an Obama-era rule on brakes

A black plume rose over East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 6, 2023, as a result of the controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern trains. (AP)

In 2014, following several high-profile train derailments, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the Federal Railroad Administration (both of which operate under the Department of Transportation) proposed rules to strengthen safety standards. for trains carrying hazardous materials.

A year later, these two agencies ended the rule for trains carrying high-hazard, flammable materials. New trains are required to have electronic brakes, and older trains are required to be retrofitted with them by 2023. Electronically controlled pneumatic brakes operate on all train cars simultaneously. . This allows the train to brake more quickly than when fitted with conventional air brakes, which are applied sequentially along the length of the train.

A high-hazard flammable unit train is defined as a train operating faster than 30 miles per hour with at least 70 loaded tank cars containing certain highly flammable liquids, such as crude oil and ethanol.

After this rule was enacted, lobbyists for railroad and oil companies pushed to repeal it, questioning the effectiveness of electronic brakes and arguing that the cost of installing them was too high.

Then in 2018, under the Trump administration, the Department of Transportation rescinded the rule based on government reports that concluded that equipping high-hazard cargo trains with electronic brakes did not make economic sense. The Associated Press reported that these government reports removed up to $117 million in estimated future damages from train derailments that could have been prevented by using electronic brakes.

Following the derailment in East Palestine on February 3, Earthjustice, an environmental group, sent a letter to Buttigieg asking the administration to reverse the Trump administration’s change to the brake rule.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung pointed to our previous fact-check, which stated that even if this safety rule were still in effect, it would not apply to the train that derailed in East Palestine because it was not categorized as a high risk. cargo train.

Although the train contained hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride, it did not meet the Department of Transportation’s narrow definition of a high-hazard flammable train unit because it did not have at least 70 cars containing of combustible materials, such as crude oil or ethanol. The chemicals it carries fall into another classification that is not included in this definition.

Cheung also pointed to a statement by National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy, who said it was “false” to say that if the brake rule had been enforced it would have prevented the derailment.

Cheung also said the brakes were not the cause of the derailment, pointing to a February 6 article in the AP that said “a mechanical issue with a rail car axle” caused the derailment. But that article also noted that the derailment remained under investigation.

A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board said a wheel bearing overheated before the accident. The derailed equipment included 11 tank cars carrying hazardous materials that subsequently caught fire. The derailment dumped chemicals into the ground, water and air.

Buttigieg highlighted the rule reversed by the Trump administration

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tours the site of the Feb. 3 train derailment, Norfolk Southern, Feb. 23, 2023, in East Palestine, Ohio. (AP)

We sent Cheung our fact-check explaining Trump’s reversal of the Obama-era rule and asked why Trump said he had nothing to do with it.

“He was asked specifically about the Biden administration falsely blaming him,” Cheung said.

Buttigieg called out the Trump administration for the rule change, but stopped short of saying the previous administration was to blame for the derailment.

In a tweet on Feb. 14, Buttigieg said, “Some areas of railroad regulation have been constrained by law (such as the braking rule that the Trump administration repealed in 2018 due to a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we use those powers. we have to keep people safe.”

While visiting East Palestine on Feb. 23, a day after Trump’s visit, Buttigieg called on Trump to support reversing the rule change.

“One thing he can do is he can express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch,” Buttigieg said. “I heard he said he had nothing to do even if it was in his administration. So, if he had nothing to do and they did something in his administration against his will, he might come out and say that he supports us moving in another direction. “

Buttigieg also called on Congress to strengthen rail safety by increasing fines against rail companies, strengthening rules governing high-hazardous shipments and speeding up plans to phase out safer tank cars carrying hazardous materials.

PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this story.

RELATED: Obama-era safety rule for high-hazard cargo trains repealed under Trump

RELATED: Did Ohio train derailment cause CDC to update its vinyl chloride toxicology information? Nope

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