ATA Associates Discusses New Jersey Transit Train Accident

 Valhalla Metro-North Crash

On September 29, ATA Associates’s CEO, Robert Swint, was interviewed by NPR correspondent David Schaper on the New Jersey Transit train crash.

ATA Associates is a forensic engineering firm that reconstructs accidents such as the Hoboken crash.  Swint told David that so far he suspects — depending on what other evidence comes to light — that the trains operator was somehow incapacitated.

"Whether it was inattention, fatigue, illness ... this is something that operators are trained to do. Coming into a rail station is one of the most sensitive things you do — you come in slow," Swint said.

Robert Swint, Expert and C.E.O., ATA Associates, Inc.

Swint also indicated that the train involved would have black box data recording that would identify what the rail unit and engineer operators were doing prior to the crash; that Hoboken Terminal surveillance cameras would be used to determine train speed and possible mechanical problems; that it was too early in the investigation to determine the cause or causes of this accident; that positive train control if implemented on the train could have aided in the prevention of this accident; that accidents involving trains striking bumper stops have occurred for over 100 years.

Visit ATA’s website, http://www.ataassociates.com/Rail.htm for more  information on railroad accident reconstruction.

Source: ATA Associates, Inc.

Related Media