At Thursday's Senate hearing on the toxic train disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, Sen. Shelley Capito pointed to various instances of communication gaps that led to lack of trust between Norfolk Southern, government and the public.
"When I asked the question, where is this [hazardous] material going? Both Ms. Shore [of the EPA] and Mr. Shaw [Norfolk Southern CEO] said, it's going somewhere but we don't know where. What does that do to trust? I mean, I don't know. Are the trucks moving or not? Were they stopped in Michigan or not? Why were they stopped in Michigan?" the Republican lawmaker from West Virginia said.
All the while, "the people living there still have to look and smell and fear," she added.
In any report generated on this incident, communication needs to be a "key part" of the lessons learned, Capito added.
"I think we just need to get our transparency [on] where this material is going. How long is going to take it to get out? How deep does it have to go? All these questions that people are asking because they want this over. And that's what you're trying to do — trying to get it over, and make it safe," she said.