Top official departs ‘rudderless’ railroad safety agency

The following article by Lauren Gardner was posted on the Politico website February 10, 2018:

The resignation of the former acting chief of the Federal Railroad Administration comes while Democrats are blocking a vote on a permanent leader — and as train-related deaths climb.

Emergency personnel work at the scene of a crash in Virginia involving a garbage truck and a train carrying GOP lawmakers to their annual retreat on Jan. 31. Including the Virginia accident, Amtrak has experienced four fatal crashes since December, but agency in charge overseeing the safety of the nation’s railroads continues to lack a permanent leader. Credit: Zack Wajsgrasu/The Daily Progress via AP

A top official charged with overseeing the safety of the nation’s railroads has resigned “effective immediately,” the Department of Transportation said Saturday after POLITICO raised questions about whether he was simultaneously working as a public relations consultant in Mississippi.

The news comes at a time of strain for the Federal Railroad Administration, which hasn’t had a permanent leader for more than a year while it investigates a string of fatal train crashes and deals with a rising trend of rail-related deaths.

Heath Hall became the Federal Railroad Administration’s acting chief after being appointed deputy administrator in June. But he subsequently appeared at least twice in local media reports last summer as a sheriff’s department spokesman in Madison County, Mississippi, where he has long run a public relations and political consulting firm. Continue reading “Top official departs ‘rudderless’ railroad safety agency”