Testimonies continue to reveal information on the events leading up to and following the East Palestine train derailment disaster.

 

Testimony from Norfolk Southern Assistant VP for Communication and Signals, Jared Hopewell revealed that the Automatic Train Control (ATC) analyst working the desk on the night of the derailment did not know about the hot box issues leading up to the derailment until after the derailment.

 

NTSB officials say interviews conducted by them reveal that during a 12 hour shift, an ATC desk worker would get an average of about 300 alerts. All of these need to be responded to, but some can be dismissed and others would need to be followed up on.

 

On some nights, there could be five to six trains sending alerts that need followed up on, all the while just one person is working the desk and must respond to them one by one.

 

Officials also asked Hopewell about comments made by the ATC supervisor during interviews stating that he had requested additional staffing for the desk.

 

Hopewell explained that he was not in his current role when these discussions happened, but ever since he took his role, Norfolk Southern had taken steps to add resources to the ATC desk and have staff trained and ready for future incidents like this.

 

Furthermore, Hopewell acknowledged that when an alert is reported, there is a delay in that alert showing up for the desk.

 

When asked about how long that delay is, Hopewell said he didn't know exactly how long it was, but it is in "low single digits" of minutes.