If a federal agency can be frustrated, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is frustrated. Today, the NTSB is commemorating a five decades old railroad tragedy, and pointing out that the safety recommendation it made in the wake of that incident remains largely unadopted, mostly due to Congressional interference.
After investigating a 1969 train collision in Darien, Connecticut that killed four people and injured 43 others, the NTSB issued – for the first time - a recommendation related to positive train control (PTC), a safety system designed to prevent train-to-train collisions, overspeed derailments, switches left in the wrong position, and incursions into established work zone limits.