Tag Archives: National Transportation Safety Board

‘Design errors’ faulted in Florida bridge that collapsed: agency

Firefighters spray water on debris from a collapsed pedestrian bridge at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, U.S., March 16, 2018. REUTERS/Joe Skipper

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday that “design errors” were found in a pedestrian bridge that collapsed in March at Florida International University, killing six people and injuring eight.

The board’s investigation update said there were errors in the design of part of the 174-foot Miami span, and that resulted in an overestimation of the capacity of a critical section. The NTSB said concrete and steel specimens tested met the project’s build plans’ minimum requirements.

A crack in the bridge that was observed prior to the collapse and previously disclosed was “consistent with those errors,” the board said.

The 950-ton, $14.2 million bridge, which crossed an eight-lane highway adjacent to Florida International University (FIU) in Miami-Dade County and linked the campus to the city of Sweetwater, collapsed five days after it was installed.

In March, FIU said that engineers and state and university officials had met hours before the new bridge collapsed, but concluded a crack in the structure was not a safety concern.

In August, the NTSB released photos of larger cracks from before the collapse that had been previously known.

The NTSB said Thursday it had not made any conclusions about the probable cause of the collapse and that the “investigation continues to examine the design, review, and construction processes as well as the actions taken once the cracking was observed.”

A spokesman for Florida Senator Bill Nelson said Thursday’s findings did not address the question of “whether there was proper oversight by regulators in the design and construction of the bridge.”

FIU and the Florida Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Miami Herald reported last month that FIU had not decided whether to rebuild the bridge.

The assessment of design errors was made by the Federal Highway Administration, the NTSB said.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bernadette Baum)

Regulator ties pipeline work to deadly Massachusetts gas explosion

FILE PHOTO: A burnt Columbia Gas of Massachusetts envelope sits on the sidewalk outside a home burned during a series of gas explosions in Lawrence, Massachusetts, U.S., September 14, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

By Liz Hampton

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A NiSource Inc affiliate failed to require contract repair crews to relocate pressure sensors during natural-gas pipeline work, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Thursday, resulting in overpressured lines that caused explosions and fires in three Massachusetts communities last month.

Overpressurized gas poured through Columbia Gas Co of Massachusetts’ distribution system in Lawrence, North Andover and Andover, flooding into homes and businesses and sparking explosions and fires that killed one person and injured 21.

Critical valves controlling the gas flow were not shut for nearly 3-1/2 hours after the first alarm was raised at Columbia Gas’s monitoring center, NTSB said in a preliminary report. The center had no ability to remotely open or close valves on its own, but did notify technicians, it added.

NiSource is fully cooperating with the NTSB, Chief Executive Joe Hamrock said in a statement on Thursday. However, it will not comment on the cause of the incident until the NTSB completes its work, he added.

The incident raised safety concerns about the sprawling U.S. networks of aging pipelines. The September explosions and fires damaged 131 homes and businesses as Columbia Gas was replacing cast-iron pipe with safer plastic lines when the accident occurred.

The NTSB laid out the timetable of events in a dry account of the company’s activities that day.

Crews were working for Columbia Gas in Lawrence, a city northwest of Boston, to replace an aged cast-iron main with a new plastic distribution main line. The abandoned main had regulator sensing lines used to detect pressure in the system.

After that main line was disconnected, the sensing lines lost pressure and the regulators fully opened, “allowing the full flow of high-pressure gas into the distribution system supplying the neighborhood,” the report said.

Columbia Gas had approved a “work package (that) did not account for the location of the sensing lines or require their relocation to ensure the regulators were sensing actual system pressure,” according to the NTSB.

Minutes before the explosion, Columbia Gas’ monitoring center in Columbus, Ohio, received high-pressure alarms for its South Lawrence gas pressure system. The company shut down the regulator at issue about 25 minutes later, around 4:30 p.m, the NTSB said.

September’s explosion was the largest U.S. natural gas pipeline accident since 2010 in terms of structures involved. Eight years ago, an interstate gas transmission line operated by Pacific Gas and Electric Company ruptured in San Bruno, California, killing eight people, destroying 38 buildings and damaging 70 others, according to the NTSB.

Columbia Gas has said all cast iron and bare steel piping in affected neighborhoods will be replaced with high-pressure plastic mains that have regulators at each service meter.

(Reporting by Liz Hampton; Editing by Leslie Adler and Richard Chang)

Amtrak train on new route derails in Washington state, killing several

An Amtrak passenger train derailment over interstate highway (I-5) is seen in this Washington State Patrol image moved on social media in DuPont, Washington, U.S., December 18, 2017.

(Reuters) – An Amtrak passenger train derailed on Monday during its inaugural run along a faster route through Washington state, sending part of the train crashing down onto a major highway and killing an unknown number of passengers, authorities said.

The derailment caused “multiple fatalities,” Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the local sheriff’s office, told reporters at the scene, though he did not offer a specific number. The train struck several cars on the highway, he added, causing injuries but no additional deaths.

Seventy-seven people were transported to hospitals in Pierce and Thurston counties, the Tacoma-based CHI Franciscan Health healthcare network said in a statement. Four of them were considered “level red” patients with the most severe injuries.

Approximately 78 passengers and five crew members were aboard the train, Amtrak said in a statement.

People escaped the derailed train by kicking out windows, passenger Chris Karnes told local news outlet KIRO 7.

“All of a sudden, we felt this rocking and creaking noise, and it felt like we were heading down a hill,” Karnes said. “The next thing we know, we’re being slammed into the front of our seats, windows are breaking, we stop, and there’s water gushing out of the train. People were screaming.”

First responders are seen at the scene of an Amtrak passenger train derailment on interstate highway (I-5) in this Washington State Patrol image moved on social media in DuPont, Washington, U.S., December 18, 2017. Courtesy

First responders are seen at the scene of an Amtrak passenger train derailment on interstate highway (I-5) in this Washington State Patrol image moved on social media in DuPont, Washington, U.S., December 18, 2017. Courtesy Brooke Bova/Washington State Patrol/Handout via REUTERS

The derailment occurred on the first day Amtrak trains began using a new inland route between the cities of Tacoma and Olympia, part of a project to reduce travel time, according to an October news release from the state’s transportation department.

The rerouting takes trains along Interstate 5, eliminating a major choke point for passenger trains in Tacoma and allowing trains to reach speeds of 79 miles per hour (127 km per hour), the department has said.

Monday’s train, which had been scheduled to depart Seattle at 6 a.m. (1400 GMT) for Portland, Oregon, was the first to run along the new route, which uses tracks owned by a local commuter line.

It was not immediately clear whether the derailment, which came during a busy travel time one week before the Christmas holiday, was connected to the rerouting.

The train derailed around 7:30 a.m. (1530 GMT) in DuPont. A photograph posted by a Washington State Police spokeswoman showed an upside-down train car partially crushed on the highway, with a second car dangling off the overpass.

Authorities warned drivers to avoid the area, and southbound lanes remained closed.

The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a team of investigators to the site, the federal agency said on Twitter.

“Thank you to the first responders on the scene,” Washington Governor Jay Inslee wrote in a Twitter message. “We’re praying for everyone on board the train, and ask everyone to hold them in your thoughts.”

An Amtrak passenger train is seen derailed on a bridge over interstate highway I-5

An Amtrak passenger train is seen derailed on a bridge over interstate highway I-5. Courtesy WSDOT/via REUTERS

The mayor of one of the towns through which the rerouted trains travel warned earlier this month that the high-speed trains were dangerously close to cars and pedestrians.

“Come back when there is that accident, and try to justify not putting in those safety enhancements, or you can go back now and advocate for the money to do it, because this project was never needed and endangers our citizens,” Lakewood Mayor Don Anderson told transportation officials in early December, according to Seattle’s KOMO News.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen and Gina Cherelus in New York; Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)

Lack Of Deaths In Chicago Metro Accident Called “A Miracle”

A transportation expert says that Monday’s accident involving a Chicago Transit Authority train at O’Hare International Airport could have caused multiple deaths and injuries if it had happened later in the day.

The train was driven by a sleepy operator who investigators suspect fell asleep at the controls.  The train crashed through a barrier, over a platform and then rocketed up an escalator before coming to a stop.

DePaul University professor Joseph Schwieterman said that it was “a miracle that nobody died.”

“A train running up a (crowded) escalator could have been a worst case scenario,” Schwieterman told Fox News. “When pedestrians are hit by a train, it is usual fatal.”

He also said that while many of the passengers suffered injuries, they were lucky that the train jumped the tracks instead of crashing into a concrete barrier at the end of the platform.

“That was a lucky break,” he said. “A train hitting a wall at … high speed could easily have been fatal for many.”

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

NTSB Calls Oil Railcars A Public Risk

A member of the National Transportation Safety Board is calling tank railroad cars an “unacceptable public risk”.

The cars have come into the spotlight after two major accidents in the last year.

The DOT-111 cars were involved in a derailment in Casselton, North Dakota that caused a massive fire that burned more than 24 hours.  An accident involving the cars in Lac-Megantic, Quebec caused a massive explosion that killed 47 people and destroyed 30 buildings.

The NTSB has been issuing warnings about those cars and calling for their replacement or retrofitting since 1991.  Efforts to create actual tougher regulations for railcars didn’t get underway until almost 20 years later.

“Right now, there is so much uncertainty that people aren’t going to make investments in safer cars and they’re going to keep running these crummy cars and killing people,” Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon said.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad said they are not going to wait for increased regulations from the NTSB.  They put out a call for bids for 5,000 new tankers with a higher level of stability and security.

The NTSB is concerned because of how often oil cars pass through or very close to cities and towns.