Federal Hearings To Examine Metro-North Crashes

The National Transportation Safety Board will hold two investigative hearings in October to examine two Metro-North railroad accidents earlier this year.

On May 17th, more than 70 people were injured, five critically, when an eastbound Metro-North commuter train derailed near the Fairfield-Bridgeport line, colliding with a train heading in the opposite direction and causing millions of dollars in damage. On May 28th, a rail worker was struck and killed by a Metro-North passenger train in West Haven.

“The purpose of this hearing is fact gathering,” said Terry Williams a spokesman for the National Transportation Advisory Board. “We will be gathering additional facts for the investigation and doing so in a public setting. We will not identify a cause, draw any conclusions or make any recommendations.

The hearings will take place on Oct. 22 and 23 in Washington, D.C.

Williams said the board will make its own recommendations “once we have gathered the facts and information from this hearing.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, in a statement, called the hearings “an important step forward in improving rail safety and reliability.”

“Metro-North has informed me that it is installing new communications systems and track and joint upgrades that reflect important progress in safety and reliability,” Blumenthal. “At the hearing and afterward, I will continue to press for these investments and others crucial to transportation for commuters and goods, and key to jobs and economic growth. Lessons learned from recent incidents in Connecticut can help the entire nation”

Since May, NTSB investigators have been studying maintenance work performed on the tracks weeks before the May accident, focusing on ‘joint bars’ used to connect sections of rail. A federal lawsuit filed by a New Haven law firm on behalf of an injured passenger claimed the railroad company’s negligence had caused the crash.

At the transportation board hearing, representatives from Metro-North, government and industry will serve as witnesses and will address issues related to track inspection and maintenance, railroad passenger car crashworthiness standards, operational protection of on-track work zones and organizational safety culture.