Sep 14, 2008 10:51 pm US/Pacific
NTSB Says Metrolink Crash Could Have Been Averted
LOS ANGELES
Friday's catastrophic train collision that killed 25 Metrolink commuters might have been prevented if area rail services used modern warning and control devices, it was reported today.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates crashes and
suggests ways to avoid them, has been urging the technology for 30 years, the Los Angeles Times reported.
According to the NTSB, Southern California has more tracks shared by
freight and commuter trains than anywhere else in the country, which is where the collision avoidance systems, called positive train control, are needed most. The systems are used in parts of the Northeast and between Chicago and Detroit, but railroad officials have said the technology costs too much money and is not reliable, according to The Times.
"I'm not surprised that once again there has been a terrible, preventable train collision," Barry M. Sweedler, a former senior director of the NTSB, who retired after 31 years, told The Times. "It's extremely frustrating. They know what to do to solve these things."
The Federal Railroad Administration says putting positive train control on 100,000 miles of track across the country would cost more than $2.3 billion, The Times reported. Currently, about 4,000 miles have the technology.
Metrolink officials told The Times they did not know how much it would
cost to install the system on their tracks. Positive train control uses digital communications and Global Positioning System technology to monitor train locations and speeds. If engineers ignore signals, which Metrolink officials say caused the crash in Chatsworth, the electronic devices automatically put on the brakes. The technology can detect speed-limit violations, wrongly aligned switches, unauthorized train movements and whether trains are on the wrong track or engineers have missed signals caution signals.
The NTSB said it is too soon to say what caused the crash, but Metrolink
officials said the train engineer failed to obey a red light signal to stop and let the freight train pass. There have also been reports the engineer might
have been distracted by texting on a cellphone.
The technology is "applicable any place you have freight and passenger
trains occupying the same track," railroad consultant William Keppen told The Times. "You need to look at putting them in areas with the highest risks. The Los Angeles area is exactly what we are talking about." Metrolink spokesman Francisco Oaxaca told The Times that Metrolink does not use positive train control because its tracks are shared by Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Corp., and that to be effective, it needs to be installed everywhere.
Metrolink is "on the forefront of safety enhancements," and would use any system that works for all railroads, Oaxaca said. Among those urging multiple safety measures is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "It seems, to me anyway, that there needs to be some kind of failsafe secondary measure to protect against human error, because two trains on the same track is just unacceptable," the mayor said at the crash site on Friday.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
SLIDESHOW: Metrolink Crash
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