The National Transportation Safety Board noted anomalies in its Wednesday testing of railroad track sensors at the site of the Metro train crash in Northeast Washington, D.C.
One of six stretches of track recorded abnormalities in testing that could have theoretically masked the presence of the stopped train. Such a scenario would have prevented the computerized guidance system from halting the moving train in time before it neared the already stopped train.
The NTSB did find evidence that the operator of the moving train applied the emergency brake manually 300 to 400 feet in front of the crash site, well under the distance from the stationary train that the automatic mode should have prevented it from reaching.
The moving train, composed of older 1000 series cars, had earlier been cited by the NTSB for its poor results in crash testing and lack of data recorders. Metro had earlier declined to retrofit or remove the 1000 series, citing a lack of funding.
______________________Labels: d.c. metro crash, metro, northeast d.c., ntsb, train crash, transportation, washington d.c.
