EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — A lawsuit alleging for the first time that people died because of the disastrous 2023 East Palestine train derailment was announced on Monday’s second anniversary of the toxic crash near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border amid a flurry of new litigation.
On Monday, Vice President JD Vance visited the small community he used to represent as a senator and toured the cleanup with President Donald Trump’s newly confirmed head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and other dignitaries. He told a gathering of first responders and local elected officials that the town “will not be forgotten, will not be left behind.” Vance was a fledgling U.S. senator for Ohio when the fiery train accident took place.
In remarks following the tour and a community roundtable, Vance did not make entirely clear how much pressure the Trump administration will put on the railroads to continue improving safety or whether they will push for the bill Vance co-authored in response to the derailment. Three CEOs of the biggest railroads said last month they believe the administration will be supportive of the industry.
Vance said that he still believes “we continue to need to do better on rail safety in this country,” and he promised to work on it, but at another point he said it will be up to Ohio’s two new senators — Republicans Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted — and their colleagues to pass it. Both Husted and Moreno accompanied Vance on Monday, but they were not given an opportunity to speak at the vice president’s short briefing.
Standing in the village’s firehouse, Vance said, “We are in it for the long haul in East Palestine. What does that mean? Well, one thing it means is that, of course, the environmental cleanup has to get done. It’s a tragedy and a shame that it wasn’t done during the last administration, but I guarantee you we’re going to finish the cleanup during this administration.”