On Tuesday Federal regulators announced their conclusions on the cause of the Metro-North derailment that killed four people in the Bronx last December.
A sleep-deprived engineer nodded off at the controls to cause the derailment of the Metro-North Hudson Line commuter train, the NTSB report finds.
The train engineer's sleepiness was due to a combination of an undiagnosed sleep apnea and a drastic shift in his work schedule, it said.
A system that would have applied the brakes automatically would have prevented the crash, according to the report.
US Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut blames the Federal Railroad Administration for failing to order railroads to adopt NTSB recommendations, including a sleep-disorder screening that was suggested 12 years ago.
'It cannot be allowed to continue that safety is put second. Safety must be first,' Blumenthal said.
An FRA spokesman said the agency would respond later.
The NTSB also issued rulings on four other Metro-North accidents that occurred in New York and Connecticut in the last couple of years. It found fault with the railroad while noting that conditions have improved.
Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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