According to a July 19, AP report “The operator of a light-rail train that crashed [in San Francisco], injuring dozens of passengers as well as the operator, came under scrutiny on Sunday as federal investigators tried to figure out why he turned off the automatic controls moments before the accident. Ted Turpin, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said that the operator switched the controls from automatic to manual in a tunnel near the West Portal Station and that he never engaged the emergency brake. Had the operator kept the autopilot on, Mr. Turpin said, the train would have slowed down before arriving at the station and most likely not have careened into a parked train while going 23 miles per hour.”
Bus Fatalities Cause Safety Review
May 2, 2009
As reported in the Washington Post, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ” ordered a departmental review of commercial bus safety, a response to a string of fatal bus accidents across the country and criticism that the federal government has failed to act.”