The U.S. has two primary modes of freight transportation. The first killed nearly 5,500 Americans in 2023, increasing 43 percent over the past decade, accounting for over 80 percent of all freight-related deaths. The second killed five—not five thousand, not five hundred—just five. The first is large trucks, the second is rail. In its infinite wisdom, Congress is considering enacting costly legislation focused on reducing the latter number—and has no plans to address the former. As Congress prepares to reauthorize surface transportation programs before the September 2026 deadline, the recently reintroduced Railway Safety Act would impose billions of dollars in new prescriptive mandates on freight rail, including a two-man crew minimum. Simultaneously, Congress is actively debating whether to allow autonomous trucks on our highways, which is a considerably more complex and dynamic system for autonomous vehicles. The Railway Safety Act is best seen as a direct response to the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment in February 2023. While the incident was an unsettling and disruptive event for the community, no one died from that derailment. The Norfolk Southern railroad ultimately paid a settlement of more than $600 million to affected residents. The threat of large settlement payouts like what occurred in East Palestine shows why railroads spend enormous sums to promote safety, and the system is working: Rail accidents have dropped 44 percent since 2000, and the Federal Railroad Administration just declared 2025 the safest year in the history of U.S. freight rail. It—rightly—calls the American rail network the safest in the world. Despite these successes, the Railway Safety Act would impose obsolete and costly technology safety mandates despite the fact that the industry has already adopted more effective rail technologies. Safety policy works best when it’s based on data and technological innovation rather than post hoc response to a