Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has offered his sympathies to the family of a Norfolk Southern conductor killed in a Tuesday train collision.  

"The Federal Railroad Administration, National Transportation Safety Board and OSHA are investigating after a collision killed a Norfolk Southern conductor in Cleveland. Our thoughts are with the family facing this preventable tragedy. Now more than ever, it is time for stronger freight railroad accountability and safety," Buttigieg said Tuesday on Twitter.

On Tuesday, Louis Shuster, a conductor working for Norfolk Southern Railway, lost his life on a train in Cleveland. Reports say a train had just passed through a crossing at the facility when it was struck by a dump truck. 

The impact caused fatal injuries to Shuster and has left family members and colleagues in mourning, according to the Transportation Department. 

"The cause of the accident is not yet known, and we will, of course, cooperate fully with the National Transportation Safety Board," Norfolk Southern CEO Alan H. Shaw said in a statement released Tuesday following the accident. "In some ways, the cause does not matter. I called together every member of our management team this afternoon to emphasize the urgency of finding new solutions. 

"We will hold safety stand-down briefings reaching every employee across our network," he added. "Moving forward we are going to rebuild our safety culture from the ground up. We are going to invest more in safety. This is not who we are, it is not acceptable and it will not continue." 

After conversations with those who knew Shuster best, Shaw said he was deeply saddened by his loss and offered condolences to the family. He added that Norfolk Southern will do its best to honor a lost friend and express sympathy for all affected.