From: mrbrklyn@panix.com   
      
    usnews.com   
   Feds to Investigate Entire New York City Subway System After Derailment   
   Injures More Than 20 People   
   Elliott Davis Jr.May 2, 2023   
   5–6 minutes   
   Marc A. Hermann   
      
   Marc A. Hermann   
      
   This photo provided by The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) shows   
   emergency personnel at the scene of a train derailment of a New York City   
   subway car, Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. A New York City subway train derailed   
   Thursday after colliding with    
   another train, leaving more than 20 people with minor injuries including some   
   who were brought to hospitals, the New York City Police Department said.   
   (Metropolitan Transportation Authority via AP)   
      
   NEW YORK (AP) — Federal transit safety investigators will be reviewing all   
   of New York City's subway operations in response to a collision and derailment   
   that caused minor injuries to more than 20 people, the chairperson of the   
   National Transportation    
   Safety Board said Friday.   
      
   Chair Jennifer Homendy said the NTSB had concerns because Thursday's collision   
   between two trains was the second serious subway episode in Manhattan in just   
   over a month. On Nov. 29, a subway worker for the Metropolitan Transportation   
   Authority was    
   dragged under a train and killed while working as a rail safety flagger.   
      
   “This is the second accident on New York City transit’s property in 37   
   days. That’s not typical," Homendy said at a news conference at the 96th   
   Street station, where Thursday's collision happened. "The NTSB has been very   
   focused on system safety ...   
    so coming here we are going to want to look at the entire system, including   
   how it is managed and supervised."   
      
   Homendy said later Friday that the NTSB typically reviews a company's entire   
   operations and safety protocols in its investigations.   
      
   Pat Warren, the MTA's chief safety and security officer, said the agency was   
   aware of the NTSB's comprehensive approach.   
      
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   “For a subway system that schedules 2.7 million train trips a year, covering   
   345 million miles annually, this derailment was a rare occurrence that points   
   to the safety and resilience of transit in New York,” Warren said in a   
   statement Friday night.   
      
   The low-speed crash on the Upper West Side took place at about 3 p.m. on the   
   1, 2 and 3 lines. Homendy said an out-of-service train with a few MTA workers   
   aboard struck another train carrying about 300 passengers at a rail switch,   
   causing both trains to    
   derail.   
      
   Workers on the out-of-service train had been making repairs after someone   
   pulled a number of emergency stop cords and disabled the train. After   
   resetting most of the brakes and disabling others, the workers were trying to   
   get the train to the 240th    
   Street railyard when the collision occurred, Homendy said.   
      
   There were no early indicators of a cause, she said.   
      
   Asked about whether there were signs of human error, Homendy said it was still   
   unclear but added, “It's easy to blame humans. Human error is a symptom of a   
   system that needs to be redesigned.”   
      
   Earlier in the day, NYC Transit President Richard Davey said the passenger   
   train had the green light to proceed Thursday but the disabled train did not.   
   “As a result, it bumped into the train,” he said. “Why, we don’t know,   
   that’s still under    
   investigation.”   
      
   Work crews had been laboring to lift hulking rail cars back on the rails on   
   Friday. Davey said getting them back on the rails in the aftermath was   
   complicated because of the subway tunnel's low ceiling.   
      
   Transit workers are “literally lifting it a few inches, shimmying it over,   
   lifting it a few, shimmying it over,” Davey said. “So that process takes a   
   while.”   
      
   Homendy said the subway system does not have cameras and data recorders that   
   could help investigators. She said the NTSB recommended those devices   
   nationwide to another federal agency in 2015, but the proposal has not been   
   approved so the devices are not    
   required.   
      
   Thursday’s collision caused major service disruptions on the 1, 2 and 3   
   lines that stretched into Friday. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said limited   
   service on those lines was expected to resume at 5 p.m., and the 96th Street   
   station was to reopen. The 2    
   train had been diverted to Manhattan’s east side.   
      
   Derailments and crashes in the 119-year-old New York City subway system are   
   rare. The worst crash in city subway history happened on Nov. 1, 1918, when a   
   speeding train derailed in a sharply curved tunnel in Brooklyn, killing at   
   least 93 people.   
      
   More recently, five people died on Aug. 28, 1991, when a 4 train derailed at   
   Manhattan's 14th Street Union Square station. That train’s motorman was   
   found at fault for alcohol intoxication and served 10 years in prison for   
   manslaughter.   
      
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