Amtrak boss vows improvements

WASHINGTO

N - An emotional Amtrak CEO pledged to lawmakers yesterday that safety technology that could have prevented a deadly derailment last month in Frankford will be put into operation, while Democrats and Republicans exchanged barbs over whether Congress or the Obama administration is most to blame for railroads not installing the technology.

"We are responsible for the incident and its consequences," Joseph Boardman told a House transportation committee hearing. His voice breaking, Boardman said equipping trains with Positive Train Control, a technology that can prevent trains from derailing because of excessive speed, is the "single greatest contribution my generation of railroaders can make."

Amtrak had already installed the technology on tracks it owns in the Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington, but it wasn't in operation when Amtrak Train 188 entered a curve at 106 mph on May 12. The speed limit for the curve is 50 mph. Eight people died and about 200 were injured in the derailment.

Several lawmakers raised questions about the train cars involved in the derailment, which were severely mangled. The cars were purchased beginning in 1975 and weren't built with today's occupant protection technology, Boardman said. They haven't been replaced because the railroad is still trying to replace cars built in the 1940s, he said.

Investigators are looking at whether improved train cars could have prevented injuries or deaths in the crash, said Chris Hart, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

At the start of the hearing, the NTSB released a preliminary report that says investigators still don't know whether the engineer involved in the derailment was on his cellphone before the speeding train crashed. It also remains unclear whether damage to the windshield was caused by the wreck or an object thrown at the train, the report said.

The NTSB has said engineer Brandon Bostian, who suffered a head injury in the crash, has been cooperative but says he cannot recall the moments before the accident. The two-page preliminary report estimates damage from the crash at more than $9.2 million.

The phone was used to make calls and send text messages the day of the accident, but inconsistencies in phone records are presenting difficulties, Hart said. The voice and text messages were recorded in different time zones and may not have been calibrated to the exact time as other equipment on the train, such as a camera focused on the tracks and a recorder that registers how fast the train was moving and actions by the engineer, he said.

"We were surprised at the complexity of that ourselves and we're experts at this," Hart said. "It's very crucial to get that fact right. We will not be hurried into giving an answer."

Denham said that if NTSB hasn't determined within the next 15 days whether the phone was in use, he may hold another hearing.