The NTSB is renewing its calls for major freight railroads to equip every locomotive with automated track inspection devices that it believes could have prevented a 2021 train derailment that killed three people in Montana
FILE - Workers stand near train tracks, Sept. 27, 2021, next to overturned cars from an Amtrak train that derailed near Joplin, Mont. On Thursday, July 27, 2023, federal investigators renewed their recommendation that railroads equip every locomotive with the kind of autonomous sensors that they believe could have caught the track flaws that caused the fatal 2021 Amtrak derailment in northern Montana.
But track problems have long been a safety concern for the NTSB, which can recommend but not mandate changes. In a 2021 report on the Joplin derailment, it attributed 592 U.S. derailments over a decade-long timespan to “track geometry,” which includes the distance between the rails and their horizontal and vertical alignment. Those issues were the second-leading cause of derailment in 2021.
The major freight railroads have more than 23,000 locomotives in their fleets, including thousands that have been put into storage in recent years as the railroads have overhauled their operations to rely more on longer trains that don’t need as many locomotives. “If the recommendations that the NTSB issued today were implemented prior to this tragedy, Zach Scheider and Don and Marjorie Varnadoe would all be alive today,” he said, naming the deceased family members of his clients.
Both kinds of sensors can help identify areas of concern for a human inspector to follow up on after computers analyze the data they generate. But the VTI sensors tend to be so sensitive that they flag areas where there aren't true defects.
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