Feds blame management for Metro-North crashes

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is blaming ineffective safety oversight for a series of crashes on the New York Metro-North commuter railway in 2013 and 2014. 

The agency said Tuesday that it identified “several recurring safety issues, including inadequate and ineffective track inspection and maintenance, extensive deferred maintenance issues, inadequate safety oversight, and deficiencies in passenger car crashworthiness, roadway worker protection procedures and organizational safety culture” in its investigations of Metro-North crashes that resulted in six fatalities and 126 injuries. 

“Seeing this pattern of safety issues in a single railroad is troubling,” Acting NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart said in a statement.

{mosads}”The NTSB has made numerous recommendations to the railroad and the regulator that could have prevented or mitigated these accidents,” he continued. “But recommendations can only make a difference if the recipients of our recommendations act on them.” 

The crashes on the Metro-North that the NTSB was investigating include a December 2013 fatal train crash on the commuter railway’s Hudson Line, a May 2013 collision of two trains in Connecticut and employee fatality in May and a July 2013 freight rail accident. 

Lawmakers said Tuesday that they agreed with the NTSB’s conclusion that the Metro-North’s problems go deeper than equipment failures. 

“This report confirms what we already know: The Federal Railroad Administration and Metro-North’s operations and safety practices need to change,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Ct.) said in a statement. 

“They have made progress in these areas, but Connecticut commuters deserve to have confidence in their rail system,” DeLauro continued. “We are right in the middle of the most-heavily trafficked commuter corridor in the United States. This is something we have to get right. The families of Robert Luden, and the five others who lost their lives in these accidents, deserve no less.”