Positive Train Control could’ve prevented Amtrak crash: official

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS 

The NTSB believes Positive Train Control could've prevented the crash. (TIM DOMINICK/AP)

A life-saving technology the government has required be installed could’ve prevented the deadly Amtrak crash in South Carolina on Sunday, a top U.S. safety official said.

Investigators haven’t given an official reason why Train 91, from New York to Miami, slammed into an idle CSX train, killing an Amtrak engineer and conductor and injuring scores more.

But the Positive Train Control (PTC) system could’ve stopped it from happening.

“It could have avoided, this accident,” National Safety Transportation Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt said Sunday night. “That's what it's designed to do.”

Reports indicate PTC wasn’t in place on the stretch of rail south of Columbia, S.C., where the accident happened.

The train was diverted to a side track a few minutes after 2:30 a.m. Sunday, Sumwalt told reporters, after a switch shifted it from the mainline.

Sumwalt said the passenger train was diverted to a side track where the freight train was sitting. (LOGAN CYRUS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

CSX, which operates the rails, was also manually directing trains because its signal system was down, according to Sumwalt, who said it was too early to say if that was a factor.

Engineer Michael Kempf, 54, and conductor Michael Cella, were killed in the wreck, and 116 of the 147 people on the train were brought to area hospitals.

Officials were quick to say the crash underscored the need for PTC, which is designed to block human errors on the rails.

“Theoretically, an operative PTC system would include switches in addition to signals, so it would cover both speed and switches,” Amtrak President Richard Anderson told reporters Sunday afternoon.

Rail safety advocates have long pushed for PTC, and it was finally mandated in a nearly decade-old economic recovery act.

Kempf (left) and Cella were killed in the early morning accident.(COURTESY DONNA KEMPF/FACEBOOK)

Amtrak has installed PTC on its rails in the northeast and other stretches it controls.

But the original 2015 deadline was pushed back after rail companies said they needed time to implement all the technology involved.

Most of CSX’s employees have been trained in the technology and it’s been outfitted on all 2,000 of the company’s locomotives, according to information from the Federal Rail Administration.

But only 45% of CSX’s 9,590 miles have been outfitted with the technology.

CSX, which didn’t immediately return a request for comment, offered its condolences in a statement Sunday.

Authorities haven't given an official cause for the crash. (JEFF BLAKE/AP)

“We remain focused on providing assistance and support to those impacted by today's incident,” the company said.

PTC works through technology on locomotives, rail sensors, antennas and other devices to detect threats or speed changes on the track.

If a conductor is incapacitated and can’t respond, an active PTC system will typically slow down or stop the train.

Investigators believe it also could’ve prevented the deadly crash in Washington state last December, where a train was going nearly 50 mph above the speed limit when it derailed.

Lawmakers later gave railroad companies until the end of this year, but offered an extension to 2020 under a certain criteria.

“America’s railroads must be made safer,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) tweeted Sunday. “Proven technology like Positive Train Control cannot continue to be delayed. On safety, business as usual must end.”