California Metrolink Lawyers: Metrolink Negligently Failed To Implement An Automatic Stop System

Attorney Alert:  More Information on the Washington DC Metro Train Accident.

Metrolink Lawyer Train Accident Safety Alert:   "Blame the train engineer" has been a favorite response by the train industry and the NTSB over the last 20 years when train accidents cause property damage, personal injury and death.  The truth is that the train industry, as a result of prior accidents and litigation, has known for decades that it is impossible for train operators to be attentive all the time.  Train operator fatigue, sleep-apnea, medication, reduced visibility, distractions have cause almost all of the train collisions involving death or injury.  The real question our accident lawyers are asking as a result of the Metrolink train accident is what the commuter train industry in California has done to reduce accidents?  The unfortunate answer is that the train industry, including Metrolink lawyers and executives, have done almost nothing, despite attempts by the NTSB and Congress to take the act of avoiding train crashes out of the hands of engineers. Read more about what our lawyers who are investigating the Metrolink train crash in California have discovered ......

Other Metrolink / Veolia Resources - Metrolink Lawyers:  What Should You Look For in a Personal Injury or Wrongful Death Metrolink Lawyer?

Positive Train Control (PTC) systems are integrated command, control, communications, and information systems for controlling train movements independent of engineer command or train inputs. PTC is an electronic fail-safe system that will slow down or stop a train that's moving too fast or going somewhere it shouldn't - including toward an oncoming train. It essentially takes over the controls when an engineer is distracted or unable to operate the train.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has named PTC as one of its "most-wanted" initiatives for national transportation safety. The NTSB has been recommending PTS systems for trains since as early as 1990, over 20 years ago. After 15 of fighting the railroad industry over the importance of this technology, the NTSB found that contributing to the cause of an April 23, 2002 train accident "was the absence of a positive train control system that would have automatically stopped the freight train short of the stop signal..."  THe NTSB again recommended PTC in 2005 after a train industry symposium on the issue when NTSB Director Chipkevich testified before Congress:

In the past 6 years, the NTSB has investigated 38 railroad accidents where Positive Train Control is a safety issue. Causal factors have often been attributed to train crew mistakes and failure to operate trains in accordance with operating rules. Human factor causes have included fatigue, sleep-apnea, use of medication, reduced visibility and distractions such as cell phone use.

Metrolink train 111 did not have a PTC system. Such a system would have precluded this accident from happening,  saved 26 lives of Californians commuting by pulbic rail and saved hundreds of Californians from being injured.  So why has Metrolink refused to implement such a system, and tried to block Congress for launching initiates for PTC? In 200, another Metrolink train crashed due to crew inattentiveness.

PTC systems will improve railroad safety by significantly reducing the probability of collisions between trains, casualties to roadway workers and damage to their equipment, and over speed accidents in high risk corridors such as the Chatsworth curve where Metrolink 111 crashed head-on into a Union pacific train.  PTC systems are comprised of digital data link communications networks, continuous and accurate positioning systems such as NDGPS, on-board computers with digitized maps on locomotives and maintenance-of-way equipment, in-cab displays, throttle-brake interfaces on locomotives, wayside interface units at switches and wayside detectors, and control center computers and displays.

A check of local California trains reveals that the Coaster commuter train line from Oceanside to San Diego has an emergency system that stops trains if the engineer fails to stop for a red light. It's not the computer-based positive train control system that has gotten publicity since Friday's deadly Metrolink crash in Los Angeles. But the North County Transit District said a mechanical system is in place along the 41-mile San Diego Coast Express Rail line.  District spokesman Tom Kelleher said the system will stop the train automatically if the engineer fails to stop at a red stop signal.Federal investigators said preliminary indications show a Metrolink engineer ran a red light and crashed his commuter train into a freight train, killing at least 25 people.

While some may simply attribute the Metrolink train crash to an accident caused by cell phone use by the engineer, Traverse Legal's lawyers will establish that the cause of this train disaster is more complex, and involves a long history of regulatory action and inaction at the state and federal level.   As noted by the NTSB above, cell phone use is also known problem, with over 90% of all train accidents attributable to human error. Given this fact, why did the train industry oppose implementation of a PTC system which  eliminate the 'human factor' of distraction as the leading cause of fatal train wrecks?

Resources for Attorneys & Their Train Injury Clients:

• Video of sample PTC System in Operation

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[Metrolink Votes For Automatic Train Stop]

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors has voted to put up $5 million to help Metrolink install an "automatic train stop" system along Los Angeles County commuter rails.

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who's the board chairman, says he knows GPS technology isn't ready yet.

"The automatic train stop technology, while maybe not as good as positive train control could be in the future, is better than nothing," Villaraigosa noted.

Positive train control technology is a system of monitoring and controlling train movements to prevent such collisions using GPS.

Villaraigosa also wants Metrolink to add several safety precautions, including putting a second engineer and video cameras in each locomotive cab.

The MTA Board put commuter rail safety on the agenda in the wake of the Metrolink collision on September 12 that killed 25 people and injured dozens more. The crash happened when a Metrolink train slammed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train near Chatsworth.

[Los Angeles Trains]

LOS ANGELES - Federal officials blamed railroads Monday for refusing their requests to install an expensive safety feature on all U.S. tracks that many say could have prevented Southern California's deadly commuter train crash, which is in use on only 2,600 miles of track out of about 140,000 miles nationwide.

The technology has not been installed on the Los Angeles track where 25 people died in a crash on Friday.

"Many times in this country, we regulate by counting tombstones," said Barry M. Sweedler, former director of the Office of Safety Recommendations for the National Transportation Safety Board.

In Massachusetts, the commuter rail system is equipped with sensor technology designed to stop a train on the tracks if it fails to stop at a signal or if another train is in its path. The system, known as "Cab Signal with Positive Stop," was used in March, when a 112-ton freight car parked at a lumber yard came loose and barreled almost three miles along the tracks toward a commuter rail train carrying 300 passengers during rush hour. The technology sensed the freight train on the tracks and stopped the commuter train.

Metrolink dispatchers use computers to monitor train traffic and send signals to control flow along the tracks. Engineers are required to obey trackside signals, which are then relayed by radio to a conductor on board. Those conversations can be heard by the dispatcher and are recorded.

It remains unclear what, if anything, was said between the engineer and conductor before the crash in Los Angeles. A dispatcher tried to alert the Metrolink engineer about the oncoming train, but the call came too late.

[Train Injury Attorneys]

The most basic level of enforcement are the simple Automatic Train Stop (ATS) systems that apply the brakes if a train passes a stop signal. ATS has been widely used on heavy rail transit systems for a long time. A warning can be transmitted to the train on passing an approach aspect requiring a speed reduction. If the warning is not acknowledged, brakes are applied.

[Train Safety Technology Pathetic]

From a technology standpoint, the western systems are absolutely pathetic compared to the east coast. While it is true that the motivation for the NEC for the installation of cab signals/ATC was speed, the same cannot be said of NJT's system, for example, which has cab signals installed on over 90% of trackage, even though none of that trackage is rated above 79 mph.

[NTSB Wants Postive Train Control]

Kitty Higgins, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told the New York Times that PTC “could have prevented this accident” and confirmed that installing “Positive Train Control” (PTC) might be the answer.

[Metrolink Train Accident PTC]

Such systems have been around since the 1920s. The Pennsylvania Railroad installed “cab signal” systems on some of its main routes, including the line from New York City to Washington D.C. now owned by Amtrak.

Cab signals give engineers a replica inside their cabs of the wayside signals outside. Combined with “automatic train control,” passing a stop signal in cab-signal- equipped territory will cause an emergency application of the air brakes.