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NTSB’s Most Wanted Improvements Reflect Major Transportation Disasters of 2018

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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) unveiled its 2019-2020 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements today. The 10-item list is associated with 267 open NTSB safety recommendations that mark critical changes needed in the next two years to reduce transportation accidents, injuries and fatalities, and longstanding safety issues that threaten businesses, professionals and the traveling public.

The list, which is now available online, was unveiled at the NTSB’s press conference in Washington, D.

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C.:

  • Eliminate Distractions.
  • End Alcohol and Other Drug Alcohol Impairment.
  • Ensure the Safe Shipment of Hazardous Materials
  • Fully Implement Positive Train Control (PTC)
  • Implement a comprehensive strategy to reduce speeding-related crashes
  • Improve the Safety of Part 135 Aircraft Flight Operations
  • Increase Implementation of Collision Avoidance Systems in All New Highway Vehicles
  • Reduce Fatigue-Related Accidents
  • Strengthen Occupant Protection
  • Require Medical Fitness – Screen for and Treat Obstructive Sleep Apnea

“We do not simply come up with these recommendations based on a whim,” NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said during his opening remarks. “It’s a data-driven approach based on the results of our investigation and the tragic and senseless deaths we investigate. The NTSB’s most wanted list is written in blood.”

Sumwalt said driving while distracted – from cars to trains – had risen to be one of the most prevalent transportation risks facing American roads, railways, businesses and the general population. Texting-while-driving, he said, can increase the likelihood of a crash between four and 20 times. Sumwalt said the NTSB has called for an outright ban on all mobile devices when operating a vehicle because of the distraction to a driver’s cognitive ability and has urged policymakers to regulate the use of devices like Bluetooth and hands-free phones the same as standard mobile device use.

He also said that nearly 37,000 fatalities were reported on roadways in 2017, the most recent year of data available.

The inclusion of distracted driving dovetails with a study released in January by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which highlighted the marked increase in drivers using phones in risky ways. based on an observational survey of drivers in four Northern Virginia communities drivers were 57 percent more likely to be observed manipulating their phones, like when texting or using for purposes other than phone calls.

Based on findings that fatal crash risk is 66 percent higher when manipulating a phone, IIHS researchers estimated that about 800 crash deaths in the United States in 2017 could be attributed to drivers texting or using phones for things other than talking.

PTC also received special focus during the NTSB panel discussion and press conference. Board member Jennifer Homendy said the most recent data is from the third quarter of 2018 and that, “we are closer to installation but there’s a big difference between installation and operational. We’re a ways away from that, unfortunately. The risk is the same 50 years ago as it was a year ago,” she said, referencing the PTC-preventable crash she investigated exactly one year ago in Cayce, South Carolina.

After Congress passed the PTC Enforcement and Implementation Act of 2015 it also authorized the FAST Act, which allocated $199 million in PTC grant funding and specifically prioritized PTC installation projects for Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing funding. The Association of American Railroads estimates that freight railroads will spend $10.6 billion implementing PTC, with additional hundreds of millions each year to maintain. The American Public Transportation Association has estimated that the commuter and passenger railroads will need to spend nearly $3.6 billion on PTC.

As previously reported, several major transportation providers, such as AMTRAK and the Long Island Railroad have missed critical deadlines for installing PTC.

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“In 1961 President Kennedy set a goal to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade and in July 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did that,” Homendy said. “In 1969, NTSB investigated its first PTC-preventable accident. In one decade we put a man on the moon but in five decades we haven’t implemented PTC.”

Delta Places Age and Time Limits for Support Animal Travel

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Travelers might flock to, or flee Delta Airlines, depending on how they feel about emotional support and service animals. The company announced two risk management provisions as changes to its service and support animal policy with regard to the ages of the animals as well as flight durations:

  • Effective Dec. 18, 2018: Service and support animals under four months of age are not allowed on any flight due to rabies vaccination requirements. Additionally, emotional support animals are no longer allowed to be booked on flights longer than eight hours.  If you purchased your ticket prior to Dec. 18 and have requested to travel with an emotional support animal, it will be OK to travel as originally ticketed.
  • Effective Feb. 1, 2019:  For customers originating travel on or after Feb. 1, 2019, Emotional support animals will not be accepted on flights longer than eight hours after regardless of booking date.

These announcements follow the July notice that the airline would only allow one emotional support animal per customer and that it would no longer allow pit bulls.

The Los Angeles Times reported that passengers who had asked to bring a support animal on a long flight and bought their ticket before Dec. 18 will be allowed to fly with the animal until Feb. 1.

Delta’s policy says passengers who want to travel with support or service animals must comply with the U.

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S. Department of Agriculture rule that pets be at least 8 weeks old and fully weaned before they can fly. Whether other airlines and transportation companies follow Delta’s policy pattern remains to be seen.

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Service v. Support

In April, Risk Management magazine discussed the risks associated with assistance animals on flights and in businesses. While most people are more sympathetic to the need for a seeing-eye dog, the concept of emotional support animals, by contrast, is still relatively new and possibly dangerous.

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“This can cast reasonable doubt on claims about the need for an assistance animal, particularly with the ‘alternative’ animals like pigs, rabbits and ducks that have drawn notable media attention,” Risk Management reported.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines service animals as “any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability.”

Furthermore, “the work performed by a service animal must be directly related to the individual’s disability, such as guide or Seeing Eye dogs…”

Psychiatric service animals are not the same as emotional support or comfort animals, which are not considered service animals under the ADA. Delta also hosts a resource page that explains the difference between trained service animals and emotional support or psychiatric service animals:

On Delta flights, service and support animals are expected to be seated in the floor space below a passenger’s seat or seated in a passenger’s lap. Service and support animals and their associated items travel for free. The size of the animal must not exceed the “footprint” of the passenger’s seat.

LIRR Misses Critical Juncture for Positive Train Control

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Last week, the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) confirmed interruptions in its ability to fully install positive train control (PTC) across its system by the end of the year. Newsday reported that the LIRR system, which is a unit of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) network, failed 16 out of 52 factory tests performed in early March using a computerized simulation of the new technology.

Although its PTC contractor continues to investigate the cause of the failures, MTA officials said they believe it stems from the complexity and density of the LIRR, which is the busiest commuter railroad in the country averaging more than 311,000 daily riders.

PTC is designed to eliminate human error by using four components: GPS satellite data, onboard locomotive equipment, the dispatching office and wayside interface units. The system communicates with the train’s onboard computer, allowing it to audibly warn the engineer and display its safe braking distance based on its speed, length, width and weight, as well as the grade and curvature of the track, according to railroad operator Metrolink.

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If the engineer does not respond to the warning, the onboard computer will activate the brakes and safely stop the train.

An approved PTC System must protect against:

  • Passing a stop signal.
  • Train-to-train collision.
  • Overspeed on curves and other civil restrictions.
  • Unauthorized incursions by a train into a work zone.

The installation began in January as part of a $1 billion safety upgrade, although it had been on the LIRR’s strategic plans for years. So far, substandard testing results are not instilling much confidence that PTC will be complete by the federal deadline of Dec. 31, 2018. If that deadline is missed agencies without properly-installed PTC may face fines of up to $25,000 per day, as enforced by the U.S. Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.

MTA Board member Neal Zuckerman told Newsday he is less concerned about meeting a federal deadline than he is about “having a system that works for riders.”

“It is better to have this right than fast,” Zuckerman said. “A nonfunctioning system is not worthwhile. It’s a waste of money and time and ultimately will not serve the needs of the riders.”

The LIRR is not the only major transit system to be missing the mark. Risk Management Monitor reported on Amtrak’s struggle to meet the deadline in February and that by the end of 2017, only 8% of NJ Transit’s locomotives and none of its tracks were updated with PTC.

Efforts to upgrade train technology has been a nationwide priority. There have been a number of accidents in recent years. The most recent was a major derailment occurring on Dec. 18, 2017 when an Amtrak train derailed near Tacoma, Washington, killing three passengers and injuring about 100. That crash was the result of excessive speed in a steep curve, which experts suggested could have been prevented with PTC’s automatic braking technology. Amtrak Train No. 501, on its inaugural run, was traveling 80 miles per hour in an area limited to 30 miles per hour when it derailed on an overpass, sending the train’s 12 coaches and one of its two engines careening onto the highway below.

As previously reported in Risk Management, a similar derailment in Philadelphia in May 2015 that killed eight, was also blamed on excessive speed and could have been avoided if PTC had been in place.

After Congress passed the PTC Enforcement and Implementation Act of 2015 it also authorized the FAST Act, which allocated $199 million in PTC grant funding and specifically prioritized PTC installation projects for Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing funding. The Association of American Railroads estimates that freight railroads will spend $10.6 billion implementing PTC, with additional hundreds of millions each year to maintain.

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 The American Public Transportation Association has estimated that the commuter and passenger railroads will need to spend nearly $3.6 billion on PTC.

Crude Oil Safety Mandates Signed into Law

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A transportation law signed by President Obama earlier this month includes new mandates for freight trains transporting crude oil through the United States. The law requires that tank cars used for transporting crude oil be replaced by March 1, 2018, phasing out older DOT 111 tank cars for shipment of flammable liquids, including most Bakken crude oil, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The new tank cars will have thicker steel shells, insulating materials, full-size metal shields at each end and improved outlet valves underneath the car.

DOT tank car

The DOT said that the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) also outlines a classification and testing program for mined gases and liquids and new operational requirements for high-hazard flammable trains (HHFT) that include braking controls and speed restrictions.

A rail disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Canada, on July 26, 2013, that killed 42 people brought a heightened focus on the dangers of transporting highly flammable Bakken crude oil by train.

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The Journal News reports that the new law requires freight railroads to provide real-time data on flammable liquids shipments to state emergency response commissions (SERCs) to be shared with local first responders. The law codifies what had been a regulatory emergency order requiring trains containing one million gallons of Bakken crude oil to notify SERCs or other appropriate state-delegated entities about the operation of these trains through their states.

For the first time, the rail safety section of the new transportation law also allows states and localities to obtain inspection reports on privately owned rail bridges filed with the Federal Railroad Administration by freight railroads.

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Localities will be eligible for 80% federal funding to finance safety improvements at dangerous railroad crossings.

According to the DOT, the rule:

  • Requires an enhanced tank car standard and an aggressive, risk-based retrofitting schedule for older tank cars carrying crude oil and ethanol.
  • Requires a new braking standard for certain trains that will offer a higher level of safety by potentially reducing the severity of an accident.
  • Designates new operational protocols for trains transporting large volumes of flammable liquids, such as routing requirements, speed restrictions, and information for local government agencies.
  • Provides new sampling and testing requirements to improve classification of energy products placed into transport.