Rail angry Chuck to feds: Wake up

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER is demanding that the U.S. Department of Transportation reverse its decision to derail new rules that would have required all railroad engineers to be tested for sleep apnea.

Schumer (D-N.Y.) made the call after a National Transportation Safety Board investigation found that two recent train crashes in Brooklyn and New Jersey were caused by engineers’ fatigue and their employers’ failure to screen for and treat the sleep disorder.

The NTSB “just sounded an alarm that should be deafening to the federal DOT when it comes to their inexcusable decision to halt a national sleep apnea screening standard from being implemented,” said Schumer, who sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao asking her to reverse the decision.