The Feb. 3 fiery freight train derailment at East Palestine, Ohio, involving dozens of cars, including tankers carrying hazardous materials, has understandably caused great anxiety in many people living near railroad tracks, including some here in Pennsylvania.

All considered, that reaction is understandable.

The scope of current anxiety in and around East Palestine in the derailment’s aftermath was captured in a quote included in an Associated Press article published in the Mirror’s Feb. 10 edition.

East Palestine area resident Brittany Dailey told reporters, “I’m scared to go back home. I’m eventually going to have to go back, but it makes me want to sell my house and move at this point.”

However, after Dailey and others in her community have had time to look back on their history as part of a railroad corridor, they likely will soften the opinions currently engulfing them.

That can be said, likewise, for any now-fearful Altoona area residents who virtually every day see trains that are carrying hazardous substances pass through the Mountain City without incident.

Although it is true that anything can happen, the fact remains that freight and passenger train travel through Blair County has compiled a remarkable safety record over the decades. And, in a broader picture, that record is backed up by a statistic from the Association of American Railroads trade group.

That group says 99.9% of all hazardous materials shipments reach their destinations safely.

“That doesn’t mean that you’re never going to have an accident,” said Professor David Clarke, who previously led the Center for Transportation Research at the University of Tennessee. “That would be unrealistic for any type of transportation to have zero accidents.”

But the unlikelihood of accidents over whatever the extended period of time might be provides no window for complacency, nor for lapses in adherence to policies that have contributed to the laudable safety record.

In recent years, this nation’s railroads have been lobbying on behalf of one-crew-member staffing of freight trains, no matter the number of cargo units being pulled and pushed by the engine units.

The Mirror’s continuing stance on that proposal is that it be shelved permanently, and the East Palestine derailment is more evidence of the need for that final decision.

Federal investigators announced on Feb. 5 that a mechanical issue with a railcar axle caused the East Palestine derailment. Michael Graham, a board member of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the three-member train crew — note the number three — received an alert about the mechanical defect “shortly” before the derailment. Presumably, that crew had some amount of time to lessen the potential destructive impact of the situation — whether or not that actually occurred.

Although people of Mifflin County do not have to lie awake at night worrying that a derailment might be imminent — Federal Railroad Administration data show hazardous chemicals were released during just 11 train accidents nationwide last year, out of roughly 535 million miles — people here should make their voices heard regarding the nonsensical nature of the one-crew-member proposal.

Now residents here have the East Palestine derailment to bolster that argument.