214:19 - 215:16
“a key piece of this amendment is the two-man crew mandate. I find it absolutely fascinating that in a world where we have autonomous vehicles, no driver, autonomous trucks with no driver, we have aircraft with no pilot, and here it is, we have the only mode of transportation operating on a rail, and we say we got to have two individuals in the cab to, uh, to prevent something. The fact is there were 3 people in the cab in East Palestine.”
- Speaker
- Unidentified speaker
- Timestamp
- 214:19 – 215:16
- Community
- Alaska News
- Captured at
- May 21, 2026
From the transcript
The National Transportation Safety Board's investigations are essential to understanding just what went wrong and how we can prevent future accidents from occurring. After the NTSB released its report on June 25th, 2024, it was clear that many pieces of the amendment that we are considering today would have had absolutely no impact on that accident. For example, a key piece of this amendment is the two-man crew mandate. I find it absolutely fascinating that in a world where we have autonomous vehicles, no driver, autonomous trucks with no driver, we have aircraft with no pilot, and here it is, we have the only mode of transportation operating on a rail, and we say we got to have two individuals in the cab to, uh, to prevent something. The fact is there were 3 people in the cab in East Palestine.
Related Coverage
House panel approves $580 billion transportation bill with rail safety provisions
House committee approved $580 billion five-year transportation bill with new rail safety rules. • Rail provisions require two-person crews, wayside defect detectors, and faster phase-out of older tank cars. • Bill funds $50 billion for bridges and $65 billion for rail over five years. • New fees on electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids generate first Highway Trust Fund revenue since 1993.
