A National Transportation Safety Board report about an Amtrak train accident last year in Philadelphia that killed eight people highlights the need for railroads to move faster to install a life-saving technology that the safety board first recommended decades ago.
Amtrak’s Northeast Regional Train No. 188 derailed on May 12, 2015 because it entered a curve at 106 miles per hour, more than twice the speed at which it should have been traveling. The safety board said it appears that the engineer operating the train, Brandon Bostian, did not realize the train was approaching that curve because he was distracted by radio transmissions about another train. More than 200 people were injured in the derailment.
Like many rail accidents, this derailment could have been avoided if the railroad had been using a safety system called positive train control in that part of its network. The technology can automatically slow or stop trains to avoid collisions or derailments. Amtrak has since finished deploying positive train control on all the tracks it owns between Washington and New York. The system has not yet been installed on tracks used by Amtrak that are owned by other railroads or state governments.
Safety experts have long known that positive train control could save lives. The N.T.S.B. has been pushing railroads to adopt it and lawmakers to require it for a long time. But progress has been slow. Congress required railroads to install the technology by the end of 2015 after a horrific commuter train accident in 2008 killed 25 people in California. In October, lawmakers gave railroads three more years to install train control and an additional two years to finish installation and testing. But in December, Congress passed another provision that effectively gave railroads until the end of 2020 to fully install the technology.
“Unless PTC is implemented soon, I’m very concerned that we’re going to be back in this room again, hearing investigators detail how technology that we have recommended for more than 45 years could have prevented yet another fatal rail accident,” Christopher Hart, the chairman of the safety board, said on Tuesday.
The safety board also highlighted other issues that merit the Federal Railroad Administration’s attention. The board said some passengers killed in the accident were thrown out of the train because the train’s windows came out when its cars slid on their sides. The safety board said the F.R.A. should develop standards to make sure windows do not fall out during accidents. It also told the regulator to study the use of seat belts, which are currently not required on trains, to protect passengers from being thrown from their seats during accidents and derailments. That seems like a no-brainer.