NTSB chair says new locomotive camera rule is flawed because it excludes freight railroads

By JOSH FUNK
AP Business Writer

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Passenger railroads nationwide will now be required to install video recorders inside their locomotives. But the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday the new rule is flawed because it excludes freight trains, like the one that derailed and caught fire in eastern Ohio earlier this year. That train did have cameras because all the major freight railroads have installed them voluntarily to monitor their crews actions. But NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said that because there are no federal standards for those cameras, investigators have only 20 minutes of video from before the East Palestine derailment. The NTSB first recommended these cameras after a fatal 2008 collision of a commuter train and freight train in Chatsworth, California.