Amtrak’s safety record derails
MORE DEATHS: COMPANY IN THE SPOTLIGHT AGAIN
Transport safety board reiterates it must up safety after latest accident.
The fatal derailment of an Amtrak train south of Seattle on Monday could intensify scrutiny of the national passenger railroad company’s safety record, which was already under harsh criticism for a series of fatal incidents.
The cause of Monday’s accident, which killed at least three people, has yet to be determined, and it could take months for investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to reach a conclusion.
Last month, the NTSB chairperson issued a scathing critique of Amtrak, saying a future breakdown was likely, and the board made nine safety recommendations. “Amtrak’s safety culture is failing and is primed to fail again, until and unless Amtrak changes the way it practises safety management,” NTSB chairperson Robert Sumwalt said on November 14.
Sumwalt’s statement was made when the NTSB issued its findings on a fatal Amtrak accident in April 2016 in Pennsylvania, which it said was caused by “deficient safety management across many levels of Amtrak”. In this accident, an Amtrak train struck a backhoe working on rail tracks in Chester, killing two maintenance workers and injuring 41. It occurred a few kilometres south of the site of a May 2015 derailment in which eight people were killed and more than 200 injured.
Sumwalt told a hearing the investigation “revealed more than two dozen unsafe conditions and not all were rule-breaking by employees”.
Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson said Amtrak was continuing to make investments that the NTSB recommended. Amtrak said in a memo to employees in November it had been “transforming our safety culture” since the Pennsylvania incident.
Sound Transit spokesperson Geoff Patrick said the track was recently upgraded to handle passenger trains from prior use for slow-moving freight trains. The speed of the derailed train was “a focal point of the probe”.