In a letter to Amtrak yesterday, the National Transportation Safety Board said that it should install crash- and fire-protected inward- and outward-facing audio and image recorders in the operating cabs of all of its trains, and review the recordings to ensure that crew actions are in accordance with procedures.
Additionally, the NTSB asked Amtrak to report twice a year on its progress in the installation of these recorders.
“The information that recorders can provide to ensure that crews are consistently operating trains safely is just too valuable to ignore,” said NTSB Chairman Christopher A. Hart. “And recordings can provide critical information in understanding crew actions prior to accidents, which can help prevent tragedies like the recent derailment in Philadelphia.”
The NTSB first made recommendations on audio recorders in operating cabs to the Federal Railroad Administration following a 1996 train collision in Silver Spring, Maryland. The NTSB then called for image recorders after a 2005 accident in Mississippi.
Then, after a commuter train collided with a freight train in Chatsworth, Calif., in 2008, killing 25 people, the NTSB enhanced the recommendations to include “crash- and fire-protected inward- and outward- facing audio and image recorders capable of providing recordings (for at least 12 hours) to verify that crewmembers actions are in accordance with rules and procedures that are essential to safety as well as train operating conditions.”