Media outlets statewide uncovered an interview with a Norfolk Southern employee who said he missed a notification while simultaneously working on alerts for three other trains when the East Palestine train derailment happened in February 2023.

The alert that the worker missed was regarding the train car in Salem, which caught fire before the Norfolk Southern train derailed shortly after. 

The employee said more workers would help crews catch alerts like this, which show elevated temperatures of wheel bearings. 

Published public records from the NTSB investigation include the interview with Gary Rambo, an automatic train control analyst of Norfolk Southern who was overseeing wayside detector operations remotely the night of the train derailment from Atlanta, Georgia where Northfolk Southern has its headquarters. 

In the interview, Rambo said his job is to track roughly 300 train alerts simultaneously during a 12-hour shift, by himself.

Rambo said it was too late by the time he saw a "bearing temperature spike" alert in Salem. He told investigators,  "...Honestly I didn't see it when it first came in."

The NTSB asked about the management of his work tasks and Rambo said before the train derailed in East Palestine, "There were three other trains I was working," adding the operations would improve and be easier to manage if there was another worker on the shift to assist. 

Meanwhile, Rambo points out that Norfolk Southern's rule of thumb is to wait until analysts see three "trending alerts" before notifying train crews on the ground that there is an issue.

In response to the interview with Rambo, Senior Communications Manager of Norfolk Southern, Connor Spielmaker said:

In the last 30 miles before train 32N derailed in East Palestine, it had passed three hotbox detector systems. The first two detectors did not trigger any alarms or alerts that would have required action by the on-shift wayside desk operator or the train crew. As the train passed through the third detector, it identified an elevated temperature from a wheel bearing and announced a critical alarm to the crew, who began stopping the train. 

 Norfolk Southern has been clear that we will be the gold standard for safety in our industry. We are adding 40 new wayside detectors in the next 45 days as part of our six point safety plan, lowered their temperature thresholds, and have increased staffing on the wayside desk.