Safety Board Withholds Judgment on Crash Cause, Sends Team to Investigate

While there was speculation that Friday’s fatal train derailment was due to brake failure, the National Transportation Safety Board withheld judgment, dispatching a team of experts to conduct a thorough investigation of the crash that killed three people and injured 10 others.

“This is going to be a major investigation,” said Sandy Browne, an investigator at the board’s field office in Lawndale. “It will be the same as for a major aircraft accident.”

Shortly after the accident, eight staff investigators from NTSB headquarters in the nation’s capital as well as the board’s acting chairman, James Kolstad, were assigned to the San Bernardino accident.

Accidents Every Year

“There are scores of railroad accidents every year,” noted Ted Lopatkiewicz, a Washington-based NTSB press officer assigned to the San Bernardino case. “We only investigate the significant ones, certainly the ones with a significant loss of life or injuries.”

Among other things, Lopatkiewicz said, the investigators today will start examining the train crew’s history of work performance and whether there was evidence of alcohol or drugs in the systems of crew members.

The inquiry also will seek indications of equipment failure that may have existed before the crash, such as a cracked or broken wheel and whether rail signals were operating properly.

Areas of Expertise

He said the last major runaway train investigation involving the NTSB occurred Feb. 2 at Helena, Mont., when 48 cars got away from a crew and rolled about nine miles back into the city, smashing into three locomotives. Twenty-one cars derailed and one loaded with hydrogen peroxide exploded, shattering windows, spewing shrapnel and knocking out power.

The cause of the Helena crash is undetermined, Lopatkiewicz said, and will be the subject of a public hearing later this month.

The NTSB team sent to San Bernardino includes investigators with expertise in railroad operations, signals, tracks, mechanical functions of the locomotive and cars, crew performance and crash survival.

Lopatkiewicz said, for example, the “human performance” investigators will examine the work histories of the crew members, especially the last 72 hours before the derailment and whether they were getting sufficient rest between work shifts.

Results of toxicological tests of the crew will be studied “to determine whether there was any alcohol or drugs in their systems, not just illicit drugs but whether they were under some medication,” he said.

He said “survival factor” specialists will carefully look at the causes of death and injuries with a view toward fashioning recommendations that “possibly could make accidents more survivable.”

Each NTSB investigator will head up an inquiry in the area of his or her expertise. They will be joined by other investigators from such organizations as the railroad, railroad labor unions and government agencies, Lopatkiewicz said.

Independent Board

The NTSB, which has only 315 employees, is independent of the Department of Transportation and as such may issue recommendations critical of other federal agencies.

“We look at whether federal regulations (regarding safety) are adequate and whether they are adequately enforced,” Lopatkiewicz said. “We issue only recommendations because we are not regulators.”

Usually, the on-site phase of the NTSB investigation takes a week to 10 days to complete, he said. Later, people involved in the accident, government regulators and representatives of the railroad are interviewed. If more facts are needed, a public hearing such as the one involving the Helena train accident is held.

A final report, often taking nine to 12 months to prepare, is submitted to the board for approval. The board may send recommendations for remedial action to other agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Transportation.