The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently issued three safety recommendations in response to two ongoing railroad accident investigations.
The first recommendation was issued to the Federal Railroad Administration about the investigation of the fatal, Feb. 4 collision of an Amtrak train with a CSX train near Cayce, South Carolina. NTSB recommends an emergency order to ensure safe operations during signal suspension.
“The installation of the life-saving positive train control technology on the CSX tracks is not the cause of the Cayce, South Carolina train collision,” NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said. “While the collision remains under investigation, we know that signal suspensions are an unusual operating condition, used for signal maintenance, repair, and installation, that have the potential to increase the risk of train collisions. That risk was not mitigated in the Cayce collision. Our recommendation, if implemented, works to mitigate that increased risk.”
The other two recommendations were issued to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in connection with the fatal Long Island Rail Road accident near Queens Village, New York on June 10, 2017.
The NTSB recommends the transportation authority audit the railroad’s use of “train approach warning,” which the agency believes was not used correctly, and implement measures to correct deficiencies discovered during the audit.