Editorial: Train derailment brings national focus on VBT

On Saturday night at 6:15, a resident reported hearing the train signal as it was coming through the Huron River Drive crossing, west of Haggerty, heading toward Detroit. Twenty minutes later, another train blast signaled a second train was right behind it heading east. Others reported the crossing was open to traffic at 4:45 p.m. Friday.
The cleanup was almost complete from last Thursday’s train derailment that brought national focus to this area since Norfolk Southern rail line had just had a mega disaster with chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio.
National news reports were saying the Van Buren Township derailment also was a hazardous waste scene. Well, it wasn’t and the one car carrying liquid chlorine in the Van Buren incident did not tip over, or get damaged or dented or anything, and within hours of the derailment had been taken away with the other cars not involved in the accident.
But, was it an accident? Some national newsmakers suggest the recent rash of train derailments is payback for the U.S. destruction of Russia’s North Stream Pipeline in the North Sea. Anything’s possible.
We’re told most of the cars in the local derailment were empty and on Monday some of them were still on the side of the track waiting to be picked up. Glad our derailment only led to a day or so of inconvenient traffic detours for our readers.