The CEO of Norfolk Southern recently went through congressional hearings following the aftermath of one of their train derailments in Ohio.

US Senator Chuck Grassley says one important aspect he learned from those hearings was about railroad companies renting rail cars from different companies.

“And they’re finding, at least this was testified, they started looking more closely at the wheels on these cars more specifically. And there seems to be something wrong with the way these companies that own these cars, are they keeping the wheels safe?”

Grassley points out how far the US has come in terms of trail derailments.

“We have about 1,000 derailments a year, all kinds of railroads having derailments, that 1,000 figure sounds like a lot, but if you go back 30 years, that would’ve been six or seven times the number of derailments. So there’s been a vast improvement of the safety to the public of derailments.”      

The federal government is continuing to investigate the events that led up to the derailment and release of toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio in February.