Amtrak train collides with freight train in South Carolina
SCMED Public Information Officer Derrec Becker has the latest information on the crash.
Sunday's train collision that killed two people and injured nearly 120 in South Carolina could have been prevented if a federal safety system, under consideration for years, had been implemented, the nation's transportation safety chief said after the disaster.
Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, made the comment after an Amtrak passenger train got on the wrong track and collided with a parked CSX freight train just outside Columbia, the capital of South Carolina.
He said a system called Positive Train Control (PTC), under consideration for more than 40 years -- which is supposed to slow down or stop a train when there is a problem on the tracks -- could have saved lives not only Sunday but in previous deadly crashes as well.
“Everyone of these accidents, in fact, could have been prevented’’ by Positive Train Control, Sumwalt said, the State newspaper in South Carolina reported. “How many years have we been calling for PTC?’
The system is designed to automatically stop a train before an accident occurs. It uses GPS tracking to monitor train locations, activate the brakes, if a train exceeds a speed limit, and ensure no collision with other trains.
"Everyone of these accidents, in fact, could have been prevented. How many years have we been calling for PTC?"
Congress in 2008 instructed Amtrak and other rail operators and agencies to install PTC by the end of 2015, but the plans were delayed in part due to the price tag – reportedly more than $22 billion over 20 years.
In 2015, the lawmakers extended the deadline for the technology’s implementation to Dec. 31, 2018, but it remains unlikely the system will be widely in place by the end of the year. According to the Federal Railroad Administration, the system is in use in just on just 16 percent of tracks for freight railroads and just 24 percent of tracks for passenger railroads.
After Sunday's crash, Amtrak President Robert Anderson pointed his finger at the federal government, saying it needs to ensure the safety system is installed by the end of 2018.
He deferred to investigators about whether the system would have stopped Sunday's crash. "Theoretically, an operative PTC system would include switches in addition to signals, so it would cover both speed and switches," Anderson said.
Federal authorities investigating Sunday's collision claim a railroad switch was locked in a wrong position, making the passenger train go on the wrong track. No evidence of foul play has been found, but the investigation is still underway.
NTSB chief Robert Sumwalt. (NTSB)
Sumwalt said the passenger train hurtled down a side track near Cayce, S.C., around 2:45 a.m. Sunday after a stop 10 miles north in Columbia because a switch was locked in place, diverting it from the main line. A crew on the freight train had moved the switch to drive it from one side track — where it unloaded 34 train cars of automobiles — to the side track where it was parked. The switch was padlocked as it was supposed to be, Sumwalt said.
“The key to this investigation is learning why that switch was lined that way,’’ Sumwalt said during a news conference, the State reported. He added that “our goal is to find out not only what happened, but why it happened so we can prevent it from happening again.’’
CSX offered condolences to the families of the two Amtrak employees killed in the accident. “We remain focused on providing assistance and support to those impacted by today’s accident,’’ the company’s statement said Sunday afternoon.
Engineer Michael Kempf, 54, of Savannah, Ga., and conductor Michael Cella, 36, of Orange Park, Fla., were killed, Lexington County, S.C., Coroner Margaret Fisher said.
"Any time you have anything that happens like that, you expect more fatalities. But God blessed us, and we only had the two," Fisher said, her voice choked with emotion.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.