It's been surreal to see this event unplay in the media.
Some things I haven't seen talked about:
1. How desperately poor most of the population in that area is.
My fear is that if the crash has long terms effects people will never get justice.
These are people who can't afford to go to a doctor regularly. They can't afford to miss work. They can't afford to sue a railroad and they'll very likely take a small payment to waive all liability because any amount of money right now is better than whatever they might theoretically get in the future.
And for the most part no one there would tell you they're poor or disadvantaged. I don't mean to imply that they are downtrodden or helpless. I certainly didn't think that of myself or anyone else growing up there.
It is only with the perspective of having left and having traveled the world and having risen through the economic ladder that I have the ability to look back and see how disadvantaged they will be against a large corporation.
Barring legislation and government intervention I cannot imagine they will have even a shot in hell at getting a fair evaluation and fair deal.
2. Train wrecks happened in the area somewhat frequently
Growing up I remember at last 3 or 4 train wrecks bad enough that people had to be put up in hotels.
I don't know if that's a lot of a little for an area in a ~10 year span but it feels like a lot.
I also don't know if train wrecks are tracked and reported anywhere other than local paper archives but I would be very interested to see the internal data and memos the railroad has related to derailments.
If anyone is aware of such a resource please let me know.