NTSB: Train going too fast at curve before wreck
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| Cranes salvage the last car from from a train derailment in the Bronx section of New York, Monday, Dec. 2, 2013. Federal authorities began righting the cars Monday morning as they started an exhaustive investigation into what caused a Metro-North commuter train rounding a riverside curve to derail, killing four people and injuring more than 60 others. A second "event recorder" retrieved from the train may provide information on the speed of the train, how the brakes were applied, and the throttle setting, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday. |
YONKERS, N.Y.
(AP) -- A commuter train that derailed over the weekend, killing four
passengers, was hurtling at 82 mph as it entered a 30 mph curve, a
federal investigator said Monday. But whether the wreck was the result
of human error or brake trouble was unclear, he said.
Asked
why the train was going so fast, National Transportation Safety Board
member Earl Weener said: "That's the question we need to answer."
He
would not disclose what the engineer operating the train had told
investigators. Weener said investigators were examining the engineer's
cellphone - apparently to determine whether he was distracted.
Weener
said the information on the locomotive's speed was preliminary and
extracted from the Metro-North train's two data recorders, taken from
the wreckage after the Sunday morning accident in the Bronx.
He
said the throttle went to idle six seconds before the derailed train
came to a complete stop - "very late in the game" for a train going that
fast - and the brakes were fully engaged five seconds before the train
stopped.
Asked whether the tragedy was the
result of human error or faulty brakes, Weener said: "The answer is, at
this point in time, we can't tell."
He said investigators are not aware of any problems with the brakes during the nine stops the train made before the derailment.
As
investigators mined the data recorders for information, workers righted
the fallen cars along the curve, a bend so sharp that the speed limit
during the approach drops from 70 mph to 30 mph.
It
takes about a mile for a train going 70 mph to stop, according to Steve
Ditmeyer, an adjunct professor of railway management at Michigan State
University and a former official with the Federal Railroad
Administration.
The wreck came two years
before the federal government's deadline for Metro-North and other
railroads to install automatic-slowdown technology designed to prevent
catastrophic accidents caused by human error.
Metro-North's
parent agency and other railroads have pressed the government to extend
the deadline a few years because of the cost and complexity of the
Positive Train Control technology, which uses GPS, wireless radio and
computers to monitor locomotives' position and speed and stop trains
from colliding, derailing or going the wrong way.
"Assuming
the braking system was working normally, this crash would not have
happened" if a PTC system had been in place, said Grayd Cothen, a former
safety official with the Federal Railroad Administration.
He
said the system would probably have alerted the engineer to the speed
of the train and the approaching curve, and if the engineer had failed
to brake manually, the PTC would have probably forced the train to stop.
"This
incident, if anything, heightens the importance of additional safety
measures, like that one," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut,
which is also served by Metro-North. "And speaking for myself, I'd be
very loath to be more flexible or grant more time."
Margie
Anders, a spokeswoman for Metro-North's parent, the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority, said that the agency began planning for a PTC
system as soon as the law was put into effect.
"It's not a simple, off-the-shelf solution," she said.
The
engineer, William Rockefeller, was injured and "is totally traumatized
by everything that has happened," said Anthony Bottalico, executive
director of the rail employees union. He said Rockefeller, 46, was
cooperating fully with investigators.
"He's a
sincere human being with an impeccable record that I know of. He's
diligent and competent," Bottalico said. Rockefeller has been an
engineer for about 11 years and a Metro-North employee for about 20, he
said.
While the train's seven cars and
locomotive were gradually returned to their tracks Monday, the 26,000
weekday riders on the railroad's affected Hudson Line faced a
complicated commute.
Many used shuttle buses and cars to get to work. But no major delays were reported during the early rush hour.
On
Sunday, the train was about half full, with about 150 people aboard,
when it ran off the rails around 7:20 a.m. while rounding a bend where
the Harlem and Hudson rivers meet. The lead car landed inches from the
water. In addition to the four people killed, more than 60 were injured.
Many victims had been released from hospitals by Monday afternoon.
Seven
were still in an intensive-care unit at St. Barnabas Hospital, some
with spinal injuries, emergency department director Dr. David Listman
said. And two patients were reported in critical condition at
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
The injured
included five police officers who were heading to work, according to
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and a 14-year-old boy who was taking a weekend
ride with his father on the same train the youngster usually takes to
school.
The train's assistant conductor, Maria Herbert, suffered an eye injury and a broken collarbone, Bottalico said.
Gov.
Andrew Cuomo said on NBC's "Today" show that he thinks speed will turn
out to be a factor in a crash he called "your worst nightmare."
The
MTA identified the dead as Donna L. Smith, 54, of Newburgh; James G.
Lovell, 58, of Cold Spring; James M. Ferrari, 59, of Montrose; and Ahn
Kisook, 35, of Queens. Three of the dead were found outside the train;
one was inside.
Lovell, an audio technician
who had worked the "Today" show and other NBC programs, was traveling to
Manhattan to work on the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, longtime
friend Janet Barton said. The tree-lighting ceremony is Wednesday night.
"He
always had a smile on his face and was quick to share a friendly
greeting," "Today" executive producer Don Nash said in a message to
staffers.
The NTSB has been urging railroads
for decades to install Positive Train Control technology. Congress in
2008 required dozens of railroads, including Metro-North, to do so by
2015.
The MTA awarded $428 million in
contracts in September to develop the system for Metro-North and its
sister Long Island Rail Road. But the MTA has asked for an extension on
the deadline to 2018, saying it faces technological and other hurdles in
installing such a system across more than 1,000 rail cars and 1,200
miles of track.
The derailment came amid a
troubled year for Metro-North, and marked the first time in the
railroad's 31-year history that a passenger was killed in an accident.
In
May, a train derailed in Bridgeport, Conn., and was struck by a train
coming in the opposite direction, injuring 73 passengers, two engineers
and a conductor. In July, a freight train full of garbage derailed near
the site of Sunday's wreck.
