Norfolk Southern CEO says he’s 'deeply sorry' for Ohio train disaster
Norfolk Southern (NSC) CEO Alan Shaw testified Thursday before a Senate committee and faced tough questions from lawmakers over his company’s role in the rail disaster in Ohio in early February. Shaw said he was ‘deeply sorry’ for the freight train derailment that spilled toxic chemicals affecting the community of East Palestine, Ohio, and the surrounding area.
Shaw told the Senate panel that he would make a ‘personal commitment’ to cleaning up the environmental disaster and help the residents affected. He stopped short, however, when pressed by several senators, of specifying exactly what help he was going to provide, especially on the question of any monetary damages.
Just hours before Shaw’s testimony, Norfolk Southern reported that another one of its trains was involved in an accident. Over thirty freight cars ran off the tracks in Calhoun County, Alabama about an hour outside of Birmingham. There were no reports of injuries or any hazardous chemical leak. The accident is Norfolk Southern’s fourth derailment in five weeks.
Key video highlights:
0:11 Norfolk Southern CEO says he’s “deeply sorry”
0:55 CEO Shaw: we'll be there as long as it takes
1:12 Sen. Bernie Sanders presses Shaw on 'safety hazards'
1:46 Sen. J.D. Vance: 'slow to respond'
2:38 Rail safety experts weigh in on the crash, and what to expect next
Video Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ALAN SHAW: I want to begin today by expressing how deeply sorry I am for the impact this derailment has had on the residents of East Palestine and the surrounding communities. I am determined to make this right.
DEBRA SHORE: We've used one of EPA's most powerful enforcement tools to hold Norfolk Southern accountable and to require the company to clean up the mess it made.
TOM CARPER: Will you commit that Norfolk Southern will be there for as long as it takes to make East Palestine, Ohio, Darlington Township in Pennsylvania, and the surrounding communities whole from this disaster, yes or no.
ALAN SHAW: Yes. It's my personal commitment and Norfolk Southern's commitment that we're going to be there for as long as it takes to help East Palestine thrive and recover.
TOM CARPER: That's the answer I was looking for.
ALAN SHAW: We're going to be there today, tomorrow, a year from now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now.
BERNIE SANDERS: I have been told by workers who work for your company and other rail companies that they are now being asked to do more work with fewer workers. And that includes safety inspections. So well before this disaster in East Palestine, we have been told about the potential safety hazards.
ALAN SHAW: Senator, in December of last year, I charted a new course in the industry. And I said we're going to move away from a near-term focus solely on profits.
JD VANCE: Our leadership, our media, and our politicians were slow to respond to this crisis, in part because a certain segment of our leadership feels like the people of East Palestine are a little out of style. They have the wrong politics. They're a little too rural, maybe a little too white.
ED MARKEY: Will you commit to compensating effective homeowners for their diminished property values?
ALAN SHAW: Pardon me. Senator, I'm committing to do what's right.
ED MARKEY: Well, what's right is a family that had a home worth $100,000 that is now worth $50,000 will probably never be able to sell that home for $100,000 again. Will you compensate that family for that loss?
ALAN SHAW: Senator, I'm committing to do what's right.
ED MARKEY: That is the right thing to do. These are the people who are innocent victims.
JOSEPH SCHOFER: My concern going forward is, what are the causes? What's fundamental here? And what should motivate changes? As I watch the news coverage, it looks like every politician from the local level to the federal level is trying to jump in front of the camera and say, I'm going to save your lives. But we really don't have a good sense of the scope of the problem.
MUSTAFA SANTIAGO ALI: Well, we have to make our transportation as safe as possible. Most folks may not know that we've got 140,000 miles of railway, 100,000 folks in rural communities. Those communities are made up of lower wealth white communities and farmers and Indigenous brothers and sisters and communities of color. So we've got to make sure that folks have a clear understanding of what's moving through their backyards, or front yards in some instances, and what the dangers could be.
ANTHONY HATCH: It's sort of ironic that this railroad, which had sort of the overall the historic best safety record, a railroad that in their investor conference in December pledged to do things differently with their stakeholders, including labor and shippers-- their safety record is actually pretty remarkable. 99.99% get through. I guess instead of being thankful that it could have been worse, we're sort of attacking them as being unsafe. And that seems unfair.
