If  the Metropolitan Transportation Authority used new speed control systems, the Sunday train derailment may have been prevented, some experts say.
For years MTA officials have reportedly resisted installing a costly positive train control system to automatically slow or stop trains, as required by a 2008 federal law. However, the MTA approved a $428 million contract in September to develop a system in compliance to the December 2015 deadline, according to the Associated Press.
Some say that had the system already been in place, the derailment may have not happened, especially if the accident was caused by human error.
On Sunday morning, a train headed to Grand Central Terminal from Poughkeepsie derailed along a sharp curve roughly 100 feet from the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx. The accident left four passengers dead and more than 60 injured.
Preliminary information shows the train was traveling at roughly 82 mph, nearly three times the 30 mph speed limit, when it derailed, said Earl Weener, a National Transportation Safety Board member during a press briefing. There didn’t appear to be any problems or anomalies with the brakes, however, Weener said it was too early to tell if the accident was caused by a mechanical failure or by human error.
The engineer, William Rockefeller, Â is said to be a experienced and competent driver, with more than 20 year of experience at the MTA. He has been tested for drugs and alcohol, and his cellphone usage is under examination.
Since the 1970s the National Transportation Safety Board has urged railroads to install PTC systems, which uses GPS, wireless radio and computers to help prevent trains from colliding, derailing or going in the wrong direction, according to the AP. About 40 percent of train accidents are caused by human error.
This is the fifth MTA train derailment this year and the second to occur in the same area of the Bronx; a freight train jumped the tracks at the same curve in July. Two Long Island Rail Road trains and a No. 1 line subway train derailed without any injuries earlier this year; and in May, a Metro-North train derailed near Bridgeport, injuring about 76 people.
