U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called Tuesday for higher fines against railroad companies that violate safety guidelines. The secretary’s move comes after a headline-grabbing train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month.
Buttigieg said in a statement that the current fine “is pretty much a rounding error for a multi-billion dollar corporation,” per Yahoo Finance.
As it stands now, the highest fine that can be levied against railroad companies that violate safety rules while carrying hazardous materials, including in instances with fatalities, is $225,455, according to Yahoo Finance.
“I’m concerned that some rail companies treat fines for safety violations as a cost of doing business and then the real cost is borne by families and communities when that safety violation leads to a tragedy. It’s just not enough to have an adequate deterrent effect,” Buttigieg said in a statement, per Yahoo Finance.
“This is something I want to work with Congress on but at a common sense level, I think a pretty good place to begin would be to add a zero,” Buttigieg added.
The transportation secretary has faced criticism himself for the delay in his response to the crisis.
An editorial from the Washington Examiner, for instance, pointed out that, during a mid-February meeting, Buttigieg did not bring up the issues being faced in East Palestine but instead argued for the need for equity in construction jobs.
After the derailment on February 3, a controlled burn of the toxic chemical vinyl chloride was conducted in order to avoid an explosion. Since then, there have been reports of animals getting sick and dying, possibly due to the chemicals in the air.
Burning vinyl chloride releases hydrogen chloride and phosgene, a toxic gas that was used as a weapon during World War I, according to The Washington Post. The EPA has reportedly not detected either hydrogen chloride or vinyl chloride thus far in the affected area.
“If you got a lungful of hydrogen chloride, that would be a very bad thing. But at low concentrations, it’s going to be an irritant,” Christopher Bowers, a chemistry professor at Ohio Northern University, told The Washington Post.
The Norfolk Southern Corporation has seen its stock plunge 9.5% since the derailment, according to Yahoo Finance.
Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.