A Spike in Interest
Buttigieg’s tweet referencing the Trump-era decision to withdraw an ECP brake regulation has been retweeted over 1,100 times since he posted it. Some Twitter users went on to directly cite Buttigieg’s tweet as they spread claims that the train derailment was the result of the repealed ECP brake policy. After Buttigieg’s tweet, prominent Twitter accounts garnered thousands of likes and retweets as they cast blame for the derailment on the Trump administration.Derailed Train Wouldn’t Have Had ECP Brakes
Two days after Buttigieg’s tweet about ECP brake regulations, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy wrote on Twitter “a plea to those spreading misinformation.” Homendy, who like Buttigieg was appointed to her position by President Joe Biden, went on to post that past ECP brake regulations would not have prevented the East Palestine train derailment because those rules never applied to the specific train involved in the recent Ohio derailment incident.“Some are saying the ECP (electronically controlled pneumatic) brake rule, if implemented, would’ve prevented this derailment,” Homeny said in a series of tweets. “FALSE – here’s why. . .”
Homendy went on to say that the ECP brake rules would have only ever applied to designated “high-hazard flammable trains” (HHFT), Homendy said the train that derailed in East Palestine was not classified as an HHFT, but rather as a mixed-freight train.
Trains have to include at least 20 loaded flammable liquid tank cars to be considered HHFTs. Homendy said the derailed train in East Palestine had only three flammable liquid tank cars.
DOT Says Tweet Was Misinterpreted
A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation told NTD that Buttigieg’s tweet about the ECP brake “has been misinterpreted.”“In fact, he was clarifying other questions people had about that particular rule,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Unlike Homendy’s tweet thread, Buttigieg’s original series of tweets did not say individuals were spreading misinformation about ECP brakes. At no point in his thread did Buttigieg say people were wrong to associate the withdrawn ECP brake policy with the East Palestine train derailment.
Despite the department’s claims that Buttigieg wanted to clear up a confusion about safety regulations, he has yet to issue any of his own follow-up tweets or official statements disavowing any alleged causal link between Trump-era decision-making and the train derailment.