Transportation Safety - Articles - Page 60

FTA: Fixing D.C. rail system “a long and difficult task”

Improving worker protection on its "to do" list

May 25, 2016

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) temporary safety oversight of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA) Metrorail system is seeing initial results across the system, FTA Acting Administrator Carolyn Flowers today told the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

FairWarning Reports

In 2015, motorcycle crashes helped drive highway death toll to highest level in years

Paul Feldman

May 24, 2016

Posted with permission from FairWarning.org: Last year was a bad one for motorcyclists, with a new estimate showing that 5,010 bikers were killed in crashes nationwide, the worst death toll in seven years. The apparent 10 percent increase in motorcycle fatalities, based on an analysis by the Governors Highway Safety Association, coincided with a projected rise of about 8 percent in traffic deaths overall in 2015.

Safety failures may cost D.C. train system federal funding

May 20, 2016

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) must conduct an “after action review” of a May 5 arc flash incident in a train station and review with all operating personnel, supervisors and management procedures related to managing fire and smoke emergencies or risk losing federal funding, under a threat by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).

NTSB: Distracted engineer caused fatal Philly train wreck

-But he wasn't using his cell phone

May 18, 2016

The May 2015 derailment of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia was the result of a loss of situational awareness by the train’s engineer after his attention was diverted to an emergency involving another train, the National Transportation Safety Board announced in a public meeting yesterday.

Derailed train spills hazardous chemical

May 18, 2016

A CSX freight train that derailed in Washington has spilled hazardous material near a subway station and disrupted commuter rail and long-distance Amtrak passenger trains, authorities say.

Seat belt crackdown just ahead

May 16, 2016

Nearly half of occupants in passenger vehicles that were killed in crashes in 2014 were not wearing seatbelts, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). That troubling statistic is behind the annual Click It or Ticket safety campaign launched last week by the NHTSA, the Department of Transportation and a number of local agencies.

DOT expands Takata air bag recall

May 10, 2016

The United States Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is expanding and accelerating the recall of Takata air bag inflators. The decision follows the agency’s confirmation of the root cause behind the inflators’ propensity to rupture. Ruptures of the Takata inflators have been tied to ten deaths and more than 100 injuries in the United States.

After crash, Tenn. trucker found with beer, heroin and Xanax

Feds: He's a threat to public safety

May 10, 2016

On March 17, 2016, tractor-trailer driver Jason L. Flynn made an illegal turn across traffic, causing an accident that left a passenger car wedged underneath his trailer and its driver in the hospital.

NTSB reveals cause of deadly D.C. train accident

WMATA failed to follow its own safety rules

May 4, 2016

A short circuit on Washington’s Metrorail system that caused thick smoke to fill a stranded train, killing one passenger and injuring 91 people on Jan. 12, 2015, was the result of WMATA failing to follow its own safety procedures and inadequate safety oversight by the Tri-State Oversight Committee and the Federal Transit Administration, according to a report by the National Transportation Safety Board.

70 percent of all traumatic amputations involve the upper limbs

May 4, 2016

At least 30,000 traumatic amputations occur in the U.S. every year. A traumatic amputation can involve any body part or extremity, including the arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes, ears. Statistically, the most common causes of accidental traumatic amputation injuries are as follows: