When a disaster happens, you can safely predict that those of a certain political belief will immediately start jumping to conclusions about what caused the incident and begin to blame those of the opposite ideology for not throwing enough money at the problem to have prevented it in the first place.
We saw our latest example of it last week, when an Amtrak train derailed near Philadelphia with deadly consequences. Before the last of those killed was recovered from the wreckage, Democrats were speaking in the halls of Congress, saying that cuts in infrastructure funding had caused the disaster and Republicans were responsible.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s mayor was cautioning the public not to rush to judgment about the cause of the crash when news began to surface that the train was traveling at speeds well in excess on of the speed limit at the sharp curve where the accident took place.
Guess what? The initial reports from investigating agencies reveal that the train was going 106 miles per hour, twice the recommended and engineered speed for the curve, when the derailment occurred. There’s also no evidence as of this writing that mechanical error caused it. That leaves only human error as the cause. The engineer was familiar with the section of track where it happened, and there were signs in place to warn that the curve was ahead. A lack of infrastructure funding certainly can’t be blamed as the cause of this accident, especially since Republicans are generally amenable to infrastructure improvements if they serve the public good, are of a constitutional nature and don’t reek of political paybacks or pork-barrel spending.
Blaming this train wreck on infrastructure spending is like blaming a fatal car wreck on the road when the driver negotiates it at an excessive speed despite signs being posted.
This tactic isn’t new. Much of the recent noise from the braying left stems from the aftermath of the failure of a bridge carrying I-35W over the Mississippi Rive in Minneapolis, Minn. in 2007. That bridge collapsed under the weight of rush hour traffic and construction equipment. Although it had a sufficiency rating of 50 on a scale of 1 to 100, the major factor in its collapse, according to investigators, was a design flaw.
That event called attention to the condition of bridges across the state and country, and it also introduced scores of people to the terms “structurally deficient” and “functionally obsolete.” It also forced lots of reporters to try to explain to their audiences just what those terms mean, and to translate them from engineer-speak into plain English.
So it’s no surprise that when a bridge across the Skagit River on I-5 in Washington collapsed, the jumping to conclusions began again. Before investigators arrived on the scene, liberals started blaming a lack of infrastructure funding. And again, they were wrong. The query revealed that an overheight truck struck some of the overhead support beams on the truss bridge, causing it to fall into the river. Again, it was another futile exercise in worthless mental gymnastics.
Kentucky took note of this when an overwidth truck struck a support beam on the bridge connecting US 52 in Ohio to downtown Ashland. The bridge was closed immediately while repairs were made, and officials were grateful that the span didn’t collapse like the one on the west coast did.
There have been a couple of similar events in this area that also could have brought out the braying left, and in the latter case, it did. A year prior to the Washington state bridge collapse, a span of the Eggner Ferry Bridge carrying US 68 and KY 80 across Kentucky Lake in western Kentucky collapsed. The usual suspects didn’t have time to start their familiar chorus of cacophony, though, because this happened after dark and it soon became known that an ocean-going ship had used the wrong navigational channel and had struck the span.
And earlier this year, just across the Ohio River, a bridge at the Hopple Street exit over I-75 in Cincinnati collapsed. The bridge was being demolished because a replacement had been built, and the cause was determined to be a construction accident. Before the cause had been revealed, the left was already sounding its clarion call that a lack of funding was to blame. Sorry, wrong again, as usual.
It’s true that many of the nation’s public works are in need of repair or replacement. From road and bridges to water and sewer lines to schools, there are problems. But there’s also a lack of funds to fix them. The left continues to insist that money be spent on social programs, there’s a dearth of tax revenue available, and the public at large feels like they’re taxed to the max and can’t afford to pay any more. When conservatives try to cut social programs to pay for these projects, they’re cast as unfeeling. When they decline to raise taxes and take more from their constituents’ paychecks, which is also commendable, they’re painted with the same broad and unfair brush. Families have to make tough choices when their expenses exceed their incomes, but the government seemingly never has to. And the well of higher taxes has run dry.
It would be refreshing if, for once, the left would wait before the facts are known before they jump to conclusions. But the same constituency that cares so much about the public’s health that it wants to ban salt shakers at restaurants and Big Gulps in convenience stores seemingly can’t wait to get some exercise, ineffective as it is.
(H.B. Elkins is a former award-winning Kentucky community newspaper editor who now works in public relations. All opinions expressed are his own do not represent the views of his current or any former employer. Reach him at hbelkins@gmail.com. Read more at kentuckyvalleyviews.blogspot.com.)
