(NewsNation) — Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said he could have spoken out sooner on the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment while also calling on railroad companies to take actions to increase safety without regulatory pressure.
Nexstar’s Rashad Hudson interviewed Buttigieg on the East Palestine train disaster. Buttigieg said Congress needs to act to improve safety in the rail industry and move more quickly than it has previously. He pointed specifically to a rule to require stronger tank cars that resist spills, which is not set to go into effect until 2029.
“Look, the railroad industry is very powerful in Washington, they have successfully stopped or watered down a number of safety regulations,” he said.
Buttigieg said the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the derailment needs to be completed before he can make any definite statements on root causes of the accident. Still, he has proposed actions that would increase safety, including the use of safer tanker cars and stricter regulations around staffing.
“Believe it or not, the rail industry has been pushing to have as few as one, just one person on a train that could be a mile long. Think about what happens if there’s a problem three quarters of the way toward the back of the train, and there’s only one engineer on board,” he said.
Buttigieg stressed that railroad companies do have the power to increase safety measures without waiting for Congress to pass regulations.
“They could act tomorrow, for example, to join a program we have where employees who experience a close call can report that safety information without fear of reprisal from their employer. That’s something that the railroads could do today. And they should,” he said.
Federal officials have been on the ground in Ohio since day one, Buttigieg said, but acknowledged he could have spoken out sooner. He said his administration is working to speed up efforts to increase regulations that address concerns like staffing.
Buttigieg hopes the disaster can bring lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to address rail safety and that the disaster will prompt some lawmakers who have opposed rail regulations to change their views.
If the NTSB investigation shows violations by Norfolk Southern, Buttigieg said his department would hold the company accountable to the fullest extent possible under the law.
“Look, we’re talking about a multibillion-dollar corporation, one that has really sought many times to weaken safety rules, and has cut employees again and again and again, including people who work in safety and maintenance. They need to be held accountable,” Buttigieg said.