On Friday, April 8, Amtrak filed a lawsuit against Cimarron Crossing Feeders, LLC, claiming “gross negligence” as the alleged cause of a derailment last month that left 32 passengers injured. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found in their investigation that one of the feed company’s trucks had struck the side of the railroad trucks, shifting the alignment of the tracks. The lawsuit alleges that Cimarron Crossing Feeders failed to notify BNSF, the owner of the tracks, or Amtrak, of the damage. Click here to read more from The Hutchinson News. Click here to read SMART TD’s March 14 report on the derailment.
Tag: NTSB
?WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board opened Monday the accident docket and publicly released more than 2,000 pages of information as part of the NTSB’s ongoing investigation of the May 12, 2015, Amtrak passenger train derailment in Philadelphia.
Amtrak passenger train #188 derailed, after entering a curve at 106 mph where the speed is restricted to 50 mph. Of the 250 passengers and eight Amtrak employees who were on board, eight passengers were killed and more than 200 others were transported to area hospitals.
Included in the docket are documents containing interview transcripts, letters, factual reports, photographs and other investigative material.
The public docket contains only factual information collected by NTSB investigators, and does not provide analysis, findings, recommendations or probable cause determinations. No conclusions about how or why an accident occurred should be drawn from the docket. The docket opening marks a transition in the investigative process where the majority of facts needed for the investigation have been gathered and the NTSB can move ahead with analysis of those facts. Opening the docket affords those with a need and desire for its contents the opportunity review what factual information has been gathered about the accident. Any analysis, findings, recommendations, or probable cause determinations related to the accident will be issued by the Board at a later date.
The docket material is available at: http://go.usa.gov/cEecP.
Additional material may be added to the docket as it becomes available.
Enforcement push is part of broader effort to increase overall rail safety
WASHINGTON – The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today announced that its stepped-up enforcement of railroad safety regulations led to the highest-ever civil penalty collection rate in the agency’s 50-year history.
For Fiscal Year (FY) 2015, the agency will collect 75 percent of all civil penalties it issued to railroads for violating federal safety regulations – a six percent increase over FY2014, and the largest percentage rate ever collected by the agency. The total amount of civil penalties in FY2015, $15 million, increased by 12 percent compared to the previous year.
“Safety must be the number one priority for every railroad, and the Department of Transportation will continue to take aggressive action against railroads who fail to follow safety rules,” said U.S Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “A strong safety enforcement program is critical to prevent accidents, save lives and move our country forward.”
FRA’s collection rate is the highest in the agency’s history and significantly higher than previous years.
| Year | Collection Rate |
| FY 2015 | 75% |
| FY 2014 | 69% |
| FY 2013 | 68% |
| FY 2012 | 69% |
| FY 2011 | 68% |
| FY 2010 | 68% |
| FY 2009 | 67% |
Last year, more than 6,485 railroad company violations resulted in civil penalties. The largest portion of those violations, 29 percent, was for motive power and equipment violations, followed by 26 percent for track violations.
| FRA Safety Discipline | Violations Resulting in a Civil Penalty | Percentage |
| Hazmat | 1,327 | 20% |
| MP&E | 1,869 | 29% |
| OP | 1,184 | 18% |
| Signal & Train Control | 416 | 7% |
| Track | 1,689 | 26% |
| TOTAL | 6,485 |
“Setting a record for collections is an important milestone, but it is just one element of FRA’s broader effort to achieve a safer rail system,” said FRA Administrator Sarah E. Feinberg. “As we continue to aggressively enforce safety regulations, FRA will also continue to implement new, innovative solutions to increase safety.”
The stepped-up enforcement of safety regulations is part of the Federal Railroad Administration’s larger, comprehensive effort to increase safety of the nation’s rail system. Administrator Feinberg has also prioritized railroad crossing safety, improving the safety of hazmat and crude transport, increasing transparency and working more closely with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
To read the full report, visit: https://www.fra.dot.gov/eLib/details/L17311#p1_z5_gD
?WASHINGTON – The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) unveiled its 2016 Most Wanted List of transportation safety improvements Wednesday, calling it a “road map from lessons learned to lives saved.” The list focuses on 10 broad safety improvements on which the NTSB has made recommendations that have not yet been implemented.
Several items on the list demonstrate the importance of technology in saving lives, preventing accidents and lessening the number and severity of injuries from accidents. For example, the list calls for promoting both the availability of collision avoidance technology in highway vehicles, and the completion of rail safety initiatives to prevent accidents. The list also calls for strengthening occupant protection in all modes of transportation, including laws mandating primary enforcement of seatbelt use, and age-appropriate child restraints.
Twenty years ago, the NTSB issued its first recommendation on the use of technology to prevent rear-end collisions. Implementation of this technology could significantly reduce motor vehicle crashes – by far the leading cause of death and injuries in transportation. Although federal regulators have made progress toward including such technologies in the 5-star safety rating on new vehicles, the NTSB advocates including such new technologies as standard equipment on all new highway vehicles – including commercial vehicles — just as airbags and seatbelts are now standard equipment.
The NTSB also called for completion of rail safety initiatives, including the implementation of positive train control (PTC). A 2008 law mandated implementation of positive train control by the end of 2015. Congress changed the law and implementation deadline late last year to avoid a possible rail transportation shut-down.
NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart cited the PTC implementation as an example of why a sense of urgency is needed in implementing Most Wanted List improvements. “Every PTC-preventable accident, death, and injury on tracks and trains affected by the law will be a direct result of the missed 2015 deadline and the delayed implementation of this life-saving technology,” Hart said.
The NTSB’s push to improve rail transit safety oversight was in part a result of the agency’s investigation of a deadly smoke event last January near Washington’s L’Enfant Plaza Metro station. The accident exposed many safety issues, some of which resulted from shortcomings in the safety oversight of WMATA. This year, the NTSB will continue to examine the way that the Federal Transit Administration is implementing such oversight – not only in Washington, but nationwide.
Improving rail tank car safety by phasing out the use of DOT-111 rail tank cars to transport flammable liquids such as crude oil and ethanol is another improvement addressed in the 2016 Most Wanted List. The deadline for implementing such tank rules is 2025. Until these tank cars are removed from service, people, their towns, and the environment surrounding the rail system remain at risk.
Distraction (especially from portable electronic devices) and fatigue continue to be serious safety issues in all modes of transportation, and the NTSB’s 2016 Most Wanted List addresses them all. The list also notes that undiagnosed and untreated medical conditions have caused or contributed to accidents and calls for operators and regulators to require medical fitness for duty.
Impairment is also an issue in all modes of transportation. The NTSB has recommended lowering the legal limit on blood alcohol content to .05 to reduce deaths and injuries on highways. However, drugs other than alcohol can also impair drivers and operators of other types of vehicles – whether these drugs are recreational, over-the-counter, or prescription.
Another improvement on the 2016 list is preventing inadvertent spins and stalls within the general aviation community – the worst safety problem facing general aviation. While airlines have become very safe, safety progress has slowed in the less widely understood world of general aviation.
All of these most wanted transportation safety improvements are the result of our accident investigations. Our most powerful tool to learn safety lessons from accidents is data recorders. Thus, the list calls for their increased use in all modes of transportation.
The Hutchinson News reported that a recently released NTSB investigation report indicates that UP contributed to the ‘probable cause’ of the 2014 collision of two UP freight trains near Galva, Kan.
Read the complete article here.
The White House has pulled the plug on former MBTA chief Beverly Scott’s nomination to serve on a national transportation board.
Scott resigned as general manager of the MBTA last winter, announcing her plans to step down as the transit authority was coping with snow- and cold-induced service failures.
Read more from the Boston Globe.
WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sent its Status of Positive Train Control Implementation report to Congress. The report is mandated by the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee and shows that after seven years and significant assistance from FRA, most railroads will miss the Dec. 31, 2015 positive train control (PTC) implementation deadline that Congress established in 2008.
“Positive Train Control is the most significant advancement in rail safety technology in more than a century. Simply put: it prevents accidents and saves lives, which is exactly what we seek to do at The Department of Transportation every single day. We will continue to do everything in our power to help railroads install this technology,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) began calling for train control systems like PTC in 1969, and FRA was involved in establishing PTC standards with stakeholders for more than a decade before the 2008 mandate. Three years before Congress passed the PTC mandate, FRA issued its final rule that established uniform PTC standards for railroads willing to voluntarily install the technology.
PTC prevents train-to-train collisions, over-speed derailments, incursions into established work zone limits and a train going to the wrong track because a switch was left in the wrong position.
In 2008, Congress passed the Rail Safety Improvement Act (RSIA), requiring all Class I railroads transporting poisonous-by-inhalation hazardous (PIH) or toxic-by-inhalation hazardous (TIH) materials and all railroads providing passenger service to implement Positive Train Control by Dec. 31, 2015.
FRA has provided significant assistance and support to railroads in order to help them become PTC compliant. Those efforts include:
- Providing more than $650 million to passenger railroads, including nearly $400 million in Recovery Act funding.
- Issuing a nearly $1 billion loan to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to implement PTC on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North.
- Building a PTC testbed in Pueblo, Colorado.
- Working directly with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to resolve issues related to spectrum use and improve the approval process for PTC communication towers.
- Dedicating staff to continue work on PTC implementation in March 2010, including establishing a PTC task force.
“The Federal Railroad Administration will continue to use its resources and expertise to help railroads achieve the critical goal to have Positive Train Control implemented,” FRA Acting Administrator Sarah Feinberg said.
Read the full report here.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday, July 28, nominated Beverly Scott, the former general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), for membership on the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Scott served as the MBTA’s general manager until April 2015, when she stepped down following severe weather-related service disruptions. She began her stint at the agency in December 2012, and previously served as chief executive officer and general manager of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Secretary Stephanie Pollack tapped Brian Shortsleeve to serve as the MBTA’s chief administrator.
Read more from Progressive Railroading.
Washington, D.C. – As part of its ongoing investigation of the derailment of a crude oil unit train in Casselton, North Dakota, the National Transportation Safety Board produced a Train Braking Simulation Study, which it placed into the investigation docket. The study was prompted by recent North American crude oil and ethanol train derailments that resulted in the release of large volumes of flammable liquids that endangered persons, property and the environment.
The study shows that Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) brake systems out-performed distributed power configurations, which in turn out-performed conventional brake systems. The study provides detailed description and analysis of each rail braking system and the stopping distances they achieved under various circumstances.
“Over the last decade, the NTSB has investigated a number of catastrophic flammable liquid unit train derailments. Our recommendations have called for improved technologies that can reduce or minimize the risk of derailments. Improved braking capabilities are but one part of the equation in making rail transportation safer,” said NTSB Chairman Christopher A. Hart.
The NTSB considered emergency and full service brake applications on uniform grade, tangent track with clean, dry rails. The study also evaluated the effect of different net braking ratios, which measure the amount of force applied by the brake shoes against the wheels. While ECP brake systems performed best, increasing the net braking ratio for any brake system substantially improved its stopping performance.
The NTSB’s investigation of the Casselton, ND accident is ongoing. Analysis of the accident, along with a determination of probable cause, will come later when the investigation is completed.
To read the study, click on the following link: http://go.usa.gov/3Gz6P.
WASHINGTON – As part of its ongoing investigation into the May 12, 2015, derailment of Amtrak Train 188 in Philadelphia, the NTSB today provides this update on the analysis of the engineer’s cell phone and related records.
The NTSB is conducting a detailed examination of the engineer’s cell phone calls, texts, data and cell phone tower transmission activity records from the phone carrier; and records from Amtrak’s on-board Wi-Fi system.
Analysis of the phone records does not indicate that any calls, texts, or data usage occurred during the time the engineer was operating the train. Amtrak’s records confirm that the engineer did not access the train’s Wi-Fi system while he was operating the locomotive.
To determine whether the phone was in “airplane mode” or was powered off, investigators in the NTSB laboratory in Washington have been examining the phone’s operating system, which contains more than 400,000 files of meta-data. Investigators are obtaining a phone identical to the engineer’s phone as an exemplar model and will be running tests to validate the data.
The engineer provided the NTSB with the passcode to the cell phone, which allowed investigators to access the data without having to go through the phone manufacturer.
Last year the NTSB lab processed about 80 personal electronic devices and more than 40 cell phones. The phone records analysis of the Amtrak 188 investigation has been more complicated than anticipated because the phone carrier has multiple systems that log different types of phone activity, some of which are based in different time zones. Investigators worked with the phone carrier to validate the timestamps in several sets of records with activity from multiple time zones to correlate them all to the time zone in which the accident occurred, Eastern Daylight Time.
NTSB’s Amtrak 188 accident webpage has links to all of the reports, videos, images, testimony and other related materials can be accessed: http://go.usa.gov/38MUB.