(NewsNation) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited East Palestine, Ohio, on Thursday to tour the site where a Norfolk Southern train derailed, releasing toxic chemicals into the water and air.

After applauding the recovery efforts of federal, state and local leaders, Buttigieg had a message for “any national political figure who has decided to get involved.”

“I have a simple message, which is: I need your help,” Buttigieg said. “Because if you’re serious about this, there is more that we could do to prevent more communities from going through this.”

Residents in the area were evacuated while officials did a controlled release of vinyl chloride to prevent a larger, accidental explosion. They have been allowed to return, but many in the area question whether it is truly safe to go back to their homes.

Some people have reported health issues, including breathing problems and skin rashes, and there have also been reports of dead animals around the crash site.

Local and federal officials have visited the site, including Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, former President Donald Trump and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan. In response to criticism for having not visited the site sooner, Buttigieg said he was trying to respect “the role that I have and the roles that I don’t have.”

“What I tried to do was balance two things: my desire to be involved and engaged and on the ground, which is how I’m generally wired to act, and my desire to follow the norm of transportation secretaries allowing NTSB to really lead the initial stages of the public-facing work,” he said.

Buttigieg has said railroads need to act quickly to address safety concerns, without waiting for Congress to pass mandatory regulations. At the same time, he has urged Congress to act quickly to pass stricter regulations and announced new efforts from his agency.

The transportation secretary announced a package of reforms Tuesday — two days after he warned the railroad responsible for the derailment, Norfolk Southern, to fulfill its promises to clean up the mess just outside East Palestine and help the town recover. He said the Department of Transportation will hold the railroad accountable for any safety violations that contributed to the Feb. 3 crash near the Pennsylvania border.

Buttigieg said railroads and tank car owners should accelerate their plan to upgrade the tank cars that haul flammable liquids like crude oil and ethanol by 2025 instead of waiting to comply with the 2029 standard Congress ultimately approved after regulators suggested the earlier deadline. He also said freight railroads should reach more agreements to provide their employees with paid sick time to help prevent fatigue.

In late 2022, Buttigieg was part of the effort to avert a rail strike, which was threatened in part over union demands for more sick time for train employees.

Buttigieg also said regulators will try to revive a proposed rule the Trump administration dropped that would have required upgraded, electronically controlled brakes on certain trains filled with flammable liquids that are designated “high-hazardous flammable trains.” The rule was dropped after Congress directed regulators to use a strict cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the rule.

Buttigieg said he’ll ask Congress to “untie our hands here” on the braking rule, and regulators may look at expanding which trains are covered by the “high-hazardous” rules that were announced in 2015 after several fiery crude oil train derailments — the worst of which killed 47 people and decimated the Canadian town of Lac Mégantic in 2013. He also said Congress should raise the current $225,455 limit on railroad safety fines at least tenfold to create a better deterrent.

“I think just at a common sense level you ask yourself, if there’s a category called high-hazard flammable train and this train — that led to that toxic cloud and that consequence for this community — wasn’t in it, what’s going on there?” Buttigieg said.

The Federal Railroad Administration will also work to finalize its proposed rule to require two-person crews that Buttigieg pointed to as one of the Biden administration’s main efforts to improve rail safety.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.