UP at it's Best!!!!
Frowarded to me by a fellow railroader.
UP: 'Death a cost of doing business'
LAREDO, Texas -- When the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) holds a public hearing here Feb. 7 on Union Pacific's request to shift mechanical safety inspections of northbound trains to the Mexican town of Nuevo Laredo, don't expect FRA or even UP officials to cross the border to have a look see.
It's too dangerous.
Yes, the busiest port of entry for rail traffic into the United States -- Nuevo Laredo -- is too dangerous for Americans to set foot in. Yet Union Pacific wants mechanical safety inspections of northbound trains to be performed there before crossing into the United States, where they then may travel as far as 1,500 miles before receiving another mechanical safety inspection.
To save a few pieces of silver by using cheaper Mexican labor to inspect in Nuevo Laredo its U.S.-bound trains, Union Pacific is willing to roll the dice on Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Little Rock, New Orleans, St. Louis, and San Antonio going up in flames and citizens along the way and in those cities dying from hazmat releases should deadly train accidents occur.
Union Pacific says with a straight face that mechanical safety inspections of trains can be performed safely in Mexico, but even its own officials won't travel there -- nor will FRA officials even visit the facility where these inspections allegedly will be performed by who knows whom, under unknown conditions and with no U.S. federal safety oversight.
Don't take our word for this. Even British broadcasters on worldwide BBC radio recently quoted a Mexican journalist as comparing Nuevo Laredo to Iraq!
"We are in the middle of a war here," said the Mexican journalist, referring to Nuevo Laredo. "Two narco-trafficking gangs are trying to get control."
Even that journalist ceased going onto the streets of Nuevo Laredo after one of his colleagues was murdered.
During 2006, some 110 people were murdered in Nuevo Laredo, including 15 policemen plus the Nuevo Laredo police chief.
The United States closed its consulate in Nuevo Laredo after the warring gangs fired on each other using bazookas and machine guns.
An FBI agent told the BBC, "The level of violence (in Nuevo Laredo) is just incredible, and the level of corruption in the local law enforcement is significant, so local criminal groups pretty much control what is going on."
But Union Pacific wants mechanical safety inspections of trains entering the United States to be performed in Nuevo Laredo, where the U.S. FBI says, "local criminal groups pretty much control what is going on."
According to BBC News, "there are almost daily kidnappings and assassinations" in Nuevo Laredo. "One of Mexico's most wanted men recently had supper in a smart downtown restaurant -- with 30 of his armed henchmen. The mobile phones of other diners were collected to ensure security for the group," reported the BBC.
But Union Pacific wants mechanical safety inspections of trains entering the United States to be performed in Nuevo Laredo.
The mother of a 23-year-old woman, who was kidnapped 10 months ago in Nuevo Laredo, says, "In Nuevo Laredo, there are terrible shoot-outs and there are people who kill in broad daylight."
Says the BBC, "One jingle on a popular local music station is the sound of machine-gun fire, with a voice saying cheerfully: 'We'll be back in a bullet.'"
But Union Pacific wants the FRA to allow mechanical safety inspections of northbound trains to be performed in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, even though nobody from the FRA or UP wants to walk one step into the lawless town and its killing fields.
As the late humorist Harry Golden said, "Only in America."
But there is nothing funny about hazmat, such as deadly chlorine gas, leaking from tank cars and killing 100,000 Americans (a figure provided by U.S. Navy researchers) just because Union Pacific wants to avoid more costly mechanical safety inspections on the U.S. side of the border.
Perhaps Golden should have said, "Only in America could a corporation seek to put profits ahead of public safety and do it with a straight face."
Indeed, all that stands between the Union Pacific proposal and its deadly Russian roulette consequences is the Federal Railroad Administration.
That FRA hearing is scheduled for the U.S. side of the Laredo border Feb. 7 -- assuming, of course, that a bazooka round or machine gun fire from south of the border doesn't interrupt the proceedings.
