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The Norfolk Southern train derailment and the contamination of East Palestine from the subsequent burn off of vinylchloride was a horrible tragedy that has grabbed the attention of the American public and brought concerns of train safety measures back into the forefront of peoples minds. But these issues were foreseen by regulators and the workers on these trains. This disaster and the at least 1,164 other train derailments from just last year illustrate a pretty clear pattern of inadequate safety precautions and the last time these concerns were brought up during the 2022 rail union strike, the Biden administration forced the rail union to accept a deal that ignored these safety concerns.