Day 2 of the NTSB hearing in East Palestine is officially underway with even more information coming out about the night of the derailment.
 
According to National Representative for Brotherhood of Railroad Carmen, Jason Cox none of the cars on the train that derailed that night in February were inspected prior to Norfolk Southern taking control of the train.
 
Cox testified that the train came from another railroad before being handed off to Norfolk Southern. Once Norfolk Southern got control of the train, no inspections were conducted on it.
 
Furthermore, the train made numerous stops before it derailed in East Palestine. According to Cox, while there were carmen at each one of these stopping points, none of them were allowed to inspect the cars per Norfolk Southern's policy.
 
Cox says a letter from the NRA addressed some concerns about rail car inspections in a letter to Norfolk Southern CEO, Alan Shaw, but according to Cox, Norfolk Southern never responded to this letter.
 
Furthermore, when local representatives at various points across Norfolk Souther's system asked their transportation managers about this letter and letting carmen do detailed inspections, their response was allegedly "I do not have to do this therefore Norfolk Southern is not going to do this."
 
Norfolk Southern Assistant Vice President for Communication and Signals says he had no knowledge of this letter or the status of Norfolk Southern's response.
Cox says current railroad regulations are "out of date," but the Rail Safety Act, backed by Senators including Sherrod Brown, J.D. Vance and John Fetterman could address a lot of these issues.