Rail Safety Megathread. Updated December 23, 2024

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34. U.S. safety board blames two commuter crashes on sleep disorders

Source: Reuters

#U.S. FEBRUARY 6, 2018 / 1:53 PM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO

U.S. safety board blames two commuter crashes on sleep disorders

David Shepardson
4 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. investigative agency said on Tuesday that two New York City area commuter train crashes were the result of engineers with undiagnosed sleep disorders.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) criticized the lack of safety systems in both crashes that could have prevented the incidents blamed on fatigued engineers.

The board said two recent crashes had almost identical probable causes. A New Jersey Transit train crashed in a terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey, in September 2016, killing one person and injuring 110. In January, a Long Island Rail Road train crashed at the Atlantic Terminal in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, injuring 108 people.

Both engineers suffered from severe sleep apnea, which is characterized by shallow or interrupted breathing during sleep and can leave sufferers fatigued.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-train-crashes/u-s-safety-board-blames-two-commuter-crashes-on-sleep-disorders-idUSKBN1FQ2QM


Source: NTSB

NTSB News Release

Nearly Identical Probable Causes for 2 Commuter Rail Accidents Drive Safety Recommendations

2/6/2018

​Fatigue from Undiagnosed Obstructive Sleep Apnea Caused Both Accidents

WASHINGTON (Feb. 6, 2018) — The National Transportation Safety Board Tuesday determined that two commuter railroad terminal accidents in the New York area were caused by engineer fatigue resulting from undiagnosed severe obstructive sleep apnea.

The Sept. 29, 2016, accident on the New Jersey Transit railroad at Hoboken, New Jersey, killed one person, injured 110, and resulted in major damage to the station. The Jan. 4, 2017, accident on the Long Island Rail Road at the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, New York, injured 108 people. Both accidents involved trains that struck end-of-track bumping posts and crashed into stations.

The NTSB found the two accidents had “almost identical” probable causes and safety issues. The board also determined that these safety issues were not unique to these two properties, but exist throughout the country at many intercity passenger and commuter passenger train terminals.

In a statement issued in August 2017 the NTSB expressed its “disappointment” with the withdrawal of a Notice of Proposed Rule Making by the Federal Railroad Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration stating, “Obstructive sleep apnea has been in the probable cause of 10 highway and rail accidents investigated by the NTSB in the past 17 years … Medical fitness and fatigue, two of the NTSB’s 10 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements for 2017 – 2018, are tied to obstructive sleep apnea.”

“The traveling public deserves alert operators,” said NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt. “That is not too much to ask.”

When operating a train into a terminating track, the engineer’s actions, or lack thereof, solely determine whether the train stops before the end of the track. According to the FRA there are currently no mechanisms installed in the U.S. that will automatically stop a train at the end of the track if the engineer is incapacitated, inattentive or disengaged. Some railroads have overspeed capabilities, including New Jersey Transit and the LIRR. However, as shown in these two accidents, once the engineer slowed the train to the prescribed speed, the system did not stop the trains before they reached the end of the track.

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Read more: https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/MR20180206.aspx