{"id":30732,"date":"2015-11-30T01:55:05","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T01:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/n-y-crash-union-head-says-railway-knew-dangers\/"},"modified":"2015-11-30T01:55:05","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T01:55:05","slug":"n-y-crash-union-head-says-railway-knew-dangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/badminton\/n-y-crash-union-head-says-railway-knew-dangers.html","title":{"rendered":"N.Y. crash: Union head says railway knew dangers"},"content":{"rendered":"<section id=\"module-position-OnUbrcqlszc\" class=\"storymetadata-bucket expandable-photo-module story-expandable-photo-module\">\n<aside class=\"single-photo expandable-collapsed\"><span class=\"toggle\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"image-credit-wrap\"><span class=\"js-caption-wrapper\"><span class=\"cutline js-caption\">Emergency workers at the scene of a commuter train wreck on Dec 1, 2013, in the Bronx.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">(Photo: File photo by Timothy Clary\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"module-position-OnUbrcrSO5A\" class=\"storymetadata-bucket story-highlights-module story-story-highlights-module\">\n<aside class=\"comp story-highlights\">\n<h3 class=\"hlts\">Story Highlights<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"hlt\">\n<li class=\"hlt-item\">Metro-North has paid out $22.2 million to settle legal claims from the derailment.<\/li>\n<li class=\"hlt-item\">The railroad has closed a number of gaps in its backup safety system to prevent human error.<\/li>\n<li class=\"hlt-item\">Engineer William Rockefeller has yet to face a disciplinary hearing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<\/section>\n<p>The head of Metro-North\u2019s biggest union says that, in the years before four passengers were killed when a sleeping engineer derailed a speeding train in the Bronx in 2013, his members questioned whether the railroad\u2019s backup safety system could prevent such a crash.<\/p>\n<p>Anthony Bottalico, the general chairman of the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, says the railroad\u00a0failed to address his union\u2019s concern that the approach to the Spuyten Duyvil curve and others needed a system that automatically puts the brakes on a speeding train when an engineer is unresponsive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat had been raised for many, many years,\u201d Bottalico told The Journal News. \u201cMost accidents are human error.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a meeting days after the crash, Bottalico and union members raised similar concerns with\u00a0Metro-North officials,\u00a0Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Aaron Donovan confirmed\u00a0Friday\u00a0after The Journal News asked\u00a0about the sitdown. But Donovan could not say whether the union members\u00a0used the meeting to\u00a0remind the railroad officials\u00a0that\u00a0they&#8217;d been telling\u00a0them\u00a0about their concerns for several years or whether they were citing its\u00a0as a change that needed to be made.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single-photo float\"><span class=\"mycapture-btn-wrap\"><span class=\"mycapture-non-priority-vertical-image mycapture-btn-with-text js-mycapture-btn\">Buy Photo<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Union leader Anthony Bottalico at a news conference two days after the Bronx derailment.\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: File photo\/The Journal News)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>In a statement,\u00a0MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg did not directly address Bottalico&#8217;s claim but acknowledged that the commuter rail took a different view of its backup safety systems after the crash.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Investigation:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">Claims mount for Metro North accidents<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Related:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">Overview of the Bronx crash<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Until the Spuyten Duyvil derailment two years ago, every railroad operator on the Hudson Line believed the most important speed protection at that curve was the experience and skill of the engineers operating trains through there,&#8221; Lisberg said. &#8220;Our thinking changed quickly after the derailment, and we installed new signal protections to prevent overspeed operations through the curve.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The MTA is Metro North&#8217;s parent agency.<\/p>\n<p>Two years after the Hudson Line train went off the rails, Bottalico\u2019s claim\u00a0joins a growing chorus\u00a0of questions left unanswered by a derailment that highlighted gaps in Metro-North&#8217;s backup safety system and\u00a0forced\u00a0the railroad to make dramatic changes\u00a0in an effort to reduce the risks of human error.<\/p>\n<p>Family members of the dead and injured continue to pursue legal claims against Metro-North, while\u00a0the commuter rail\u2019s passengers are left to wonder whether\u00a0they\u00a0are safer now than they were two years ago.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"print_subhead\"><strong>Not the first to fall asleep<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>On Dec. 1, 2013, Train 8808 was on an early-morning run from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central Terminal when it took a curve at Spuyten Duyvil going 82 mph along a section marked for 30 mph.<\/p>\n<p>Federal railroad investigators say engineer William Rockefeller \u2014\u00a0suffering from an undiagnosed case of sleep apnea coupled with a recent shift change \u2014\u00a0fell asleep at the controls before the train derailed, coming to a stop along the banks of the Hudson River. Rockefeller hit the brakes six seconds before the train came to rest. Sixty people were injured.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBilly Rockefeller wasn\u2019t the first guy that fell asleep,\u201d said Bottalico, a veteran conductor who retired from his union post last week, according to a letter sent by ACRE to union workers on Wednesday. Bottalico was supposed to stay in the post until the end of the year.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"wide single-photo\">\n<p>Metro North Railroad engineer William Rockefeller is wheeled on a stretcher away from the area where the commuter train he was operating derailed Dec. 1, 2013.\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: AP file photo)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Asked why he thought Metro-North chose not to make the safety\u00a0changes, Bottalico said: \u201cMoney. It\u2019s always the money.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pull-quote\">\n<p class=\"pull-quote-item\">\u201cI think it\u2019s an outrage that the NTSB gave him a pass because of the alleged undiagnosed sleep apnea, and his shift being changed. For God\u2019s sakes, he\u2019s a train operator.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"pull-quote-attribution\">Howard Hershenhorn, attorney<\/span><\/aside>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear how high up in Metro-North\u2019s command structure the union&#8217;s concerns reached. Bottalico did not provide any written correspondence documenting the issue. The engineer who Bottalico says first voiced the concern could not be reached for comment. Two days after the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board prevented ACRE from participating in its crash investigation after Bottalico held a news conference and discussed how Rockefeller fell asleep at the controls.<\/p>\n<p>But in the months after the crash, under pressure from the NTSB\u00a0and the Federal Railroad Administration, Metro-North added safety systems on\u00a0the approach to the Spuyten Duyvil curve and others\u00a0where trains have to reduce\u00a0their speed by 20 mph or more. Now,\u00a0if an engineer doesn\u2019t slow down, the brakes are automatically applied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFRA is requiring this action as the December 1 accident demonstrates that Metro-North\u2019s existing ATC (automatic train control) system and other existing overspeed protections are not sufficient to prevent dangerous over speed events,\u201d the FRA wrote a week after the derailment.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"print_subhead\"><strong>Safety gaps addressed<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Since the crash, Metro-North has remedied a number of other gaps in safety highlighted by the crash.<\/p>\n<p>Among them:<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cab alerters<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Sleep apnea <\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Positive train control<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<aside class=\"single-photo float\">\n<p>Emergency workers at the scene of the Dec 1, 2013, derailment in the Bronx.\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: File photo by Timothy Clary\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p><span class=\"print_subhead\"><strong>Second deadliest crash<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>At the time, the crash at Spuyten Duyvil was the deadliest crash in the commuter rail\u2019s 33-year history. The death total was\u00a0surpassed in February when a northbound train slammed into a car driven by Ellen Brody in Valhalla. Six, including Brody, were killed.<\/p>\n<p>Months before the Spuyten Duyvil crash, a track worker was killed near West Haven, Connecticut,\u00a0and a train derailed in nearby\u00a0Bridgeport, striking an oncoming train and injuring more than 70 people. Taken together, the accidents forced Metro-North to re-examine its dedication to safety at the expense of its on-time performance.<\/p>\n<p>But two years later,\u00a0as Metro-North tries to move ahead\u00a0 with a new management team and a new emphasis on safety, it continues to be dogged by the events leading up to the Spuyten Duyvil crash.<\/p>\n<p>To date, Metro-North has shelled out\u00a0nearly <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">$28.2 million<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The railroad has admitted its liability in many of the cases that settled and, as a result, has not been forced to answer questions under oath about the crash, lawyers for the dead and injured say. Lawyers who\u2019ve held out say they have been stymied in their efforts to find out whether the railroad was aware of safety issues at the Spuyten Duyvil curve before the derailment.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pull-quote\">\n<p class=\"pull-quote-item\">\u201cThere\u2019s something that they don\u2019t want to get out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"pull-quote-attribution\">Robert Vilensky, attorney<\/span><\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s something that they don\u2019t want to get out,\u201d said attorney Robert Vilensky, who represents a former New York City\u00a0police officer who was injured and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n<p>Vilensky and other lawyers\u00a0says Metro-North has been quick to settle pending claims.<\/p>\n<p>Rockefeller, meanwhile, has yet to face a disciplinary hearing. He is listed as out-of-service by Metro-North. Veteran railroad employees say it is highly unusual for an employee not to face a disciplinary hearing in the months after a mishap.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"wide single-photo\">\n<p>Emergency workers at the Bronx derailment. .\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: File photo by Timothy Clary\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Metro-North declined to answer questions about Rockefeller\u2019s status.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDisciplinary proceedings are a human-resources matter that is afforded a greater degree of privacy than other MTA-related matters,\u201d said\u00a0Donovan.\u00a0\u201cWe do not speak about disciplinary proceedings until they have concluded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Attorney Howard Hershenhorn, who represents a Queens nurse killed in\u00a0the crash, said he\u2019s still trying to get Rockefeller\u2019s medical records from Metro-North attorneys to determine how and why he fell asleep.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe question becomes why was it undiagnosed?\u201d Hershenshorn said. \u201cI think it\u2019s an outrage that the NTSB gave him a pass because of the alleged undiagnosed sleep apnea, and his shift being changed. For God\u2019s sakes, he\u2019s a train operator.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rockefeller\u2019s attorney, Jeffrey Chartier, could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"print_subhead\">\u2018I don&#8217;t trust them\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So far, only one case has gone to trial.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, assistant conductor<a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"> Maria Herbert <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very angry and betrayed,\u201d Herbert testified.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t trust them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had this technology in place,\u201d she added. \u201cMetro-North did not use it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A jury awarded Herbert, 47, $835,000 to compensate her for PTSD, but she will receive an unspecified amount more than that as the result of a pre-trial agreement with Metro-North.<\/p>\n<p>Her lawyer, George Cahill, cited the railroad\u2019s lack of a cab alerter system, which he said could have roused a sleeping Rockefeller and caused him to hit the brakes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no reason why they didn\u2019t put in an alerter,\u201d Cahill said. \u201cYou put an engineer in a cab, he could have a heart attack or he could have a stroke. You have to have a fail-safe system.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"wide single-photo\"><span class=\"mycapture-btn-wrap\"><span class=\"mycapture-non-priority-horizontal-image mycapture-btn-with-text js-mycapture-btn\">Buy Photo<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A railroad crew removes the last car from the scene of the fatal Metro-North train derailment in December 2013.\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: File photo by Ricky Flores\/The Journal News)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Cahill, a former railroad worker, said he and others assumed Metro-North installed ATC along curves after an Amtrak train derailed in Boston\u2019s Back Bay in 1990 under circumstances similar to those at Spuyten Duyvil.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter the Back Bay crash, they were supposed to look at all curves where there were more than 30-mph speed reductions,\u201d Cahill said. \u201cThere were a lot of people who thought ATC was enforcing speed restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In its report on the Back Bay crash, the NTSB highlighted the lack of an automatic braking system along the curve as one of the reasons for the crash. The system was added after the crash.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear whether top officials at Metro-North were aware of the changes made in the wake of the Back Bay crash.<\/p>\n<p>But MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast, in his interview with federal investigators months after the Bronx crash, noted that the circumstances regarding the Back Bay crash were \u201calmost exactly the same as Spuyten Duyvil.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Herbert\u2019s case, as well as dozens of others, Metro-North admitted its liability and so Cahill did not have a chance to question officials about why the ATC system wasn\u2019t in place before the accident.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"print_subhead\"><strong>Eye off the ball<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Spuyten-Duyvil crash occurred when the working relationship between Bottalico\u2019s union and Metro-North management had been frayed by the death of track worker some seven months before.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Luden, 52, was killed when an inexperienced rail traffic controller sent a train down tracks that were supposed to be closed for maintenance, federal investigators say.<\/p>\n<p>Luden\u2019s death prompted Bottalico to send a scathing letter to then-Metro-North President Howard Permut, questioning the railroad\u2019s commitment to the safety of its workers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur employees and managers tell me they see a railroad in dysfunction, a railroad more concerned with budgets and long meetings and no attention to actual management of the operations,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Bottalico said that many who work on the railroad may have been lulled into a sense that the commuter rail was \u201ca pretty safe system\u201d after years without a major mishap.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we took our eye off the ball,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was not something we ever thought would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Emergency workers at the scene of a commuter train wreck on Dec 1, 2013, in the Bronx.(Photo: File photo by Timothy Clary\/AFP\/Getty Images) Story Highlights Metro-North has paid out $22.2 million to settle legal claims from the derailment. The railroad has closed a number of gaps in its backup safety system to prevent human error. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-30732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-badminton","tag-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}