NTSB Releases Wish List for Transportation Improvements
For the first time in years, the safety board didn’t list any commercial aviation hazards
The National Transportation Safety Board released its annual wish list for transportation improvements, which for the first time in years didn’t include commercial aviation hazards. PHOTO: NTSB/REUTERS
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board released its annual list of “most wanted” transportation improvements, but for the first time in years none of them specifically target reducing commercial aviation hazards.
Wednesday’s announcement reflects the steady gains in airline safety, with the last fatal crash of a U.S. scheduled passenger flight occurring nearly seven years ago. Some aviation experts said it was the first time in two decades that commercial air transport wasn’t explicitly singled out in the agency’s annual ranking as a high-priority area.
“The good news is that airline accidents have become, thankfully, very rare in America,” NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart said at a news conference. But he added that the fatal accident rate for private aircraft has remained “stubbornly resistant to improvement for many years.”
The 2016 list emphasizes potential dangers that cut across all modes of transportation, including fatigue-related accidents, the need for enhanced passenger protection and hazards related to distractions from cellphones or other electronic devices. Other topics focus on technologies such as automated braking or collision-avoidance systems in cars, trucks and trains.
The safety board also urges continued progress to combat drug and alcohol abuse in transportation, and for greater use of crash-resistant recording devices, sometimes including video cameras, inside airliner and helicopter cockpits, in the cabs of trucks and buses, and on board ships.
There hasn’t been a fatal commercial airliner crash in nearly seven years in the U.S.PHOTO: SAUL LOEB/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
Some of the new recommendations touch on overall aviation safety, including one item that calls for enhanced efforts to reduce what are called “loss of control” accidents—often stemming from pilot confusion—affecting small private aircraft.
Over the years, the NTSB’s annual list has been studded with suggested improvements for airlines and aircraft makers. Last year’s list included a call for commercial pilots to strictly follow flight-safety procedures.
But as airline safety improved in nearly every region of the world, the safety board’s “most wanted” improvements have shifted to systems such as urban mass transit, railroads and helicopters.
In calling for stepped-up oversight of rail networks—a new topic for the annual list—the NTSB said “rail transit must be subject to competent oversight bodies that have standards and rules, and the power to enforce those rules.”
The board said technology to prevent locomotive engineers from speeding or disregarding signals could have prevented the fatal May 2015 derailment of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia, which hurtled through a tight curve at twice the speed limit.
Experts said an automatic train-stop system might have prevented an Amtrak crash that killed eight people in Philadelphia last year. PHOTO: PATRICK SEMANSKY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
With drunken drivers accounting for one-third of highway deaths over the past 15 years, Mr. Hart said recent data indicate that “prescribed, over-the-counter and recreational drugs are exacerbating the problem.”
To eliminate driver distractions, the NTSB called on states to begin banning even hands-free cellphone use on the road. “A driver’s mind must be on the driving, just as their hands must be on the wheel,” Mr. Hart said.
The safety board said that two decades ago it first issued recommendations for technology to prevent rear-end highway collisions. Now, the NTSB wants federal regulators to mandate safeguards such as automatic braking as standard equipment on new vehicles.
The 2016 list promotes various highway safety technologies, from collision-avoidance systems to “adaptive headlights” that rotate to illuminate roads around bends to electronics that help drivers avoid a dangerous lane change.
Deborah Hersman, a former NTSB chairman and currently president and chief executive of the National Safety Council, praised the safety board for re-emphasizing highway collision-avoidance technology in its 2016 list.
“Our cars are safer and smarter than ever before, yet we continue to lose 35,000 people each year in car crashes,” Ms. Hersman said in a statement. The NTSB’s list, she said, amounts to “a road map guiding us toward zero deaths on our roads.”
Created in 1974 as an independent safety watchdog, the NTSB has no regulatory or enforcement authority. But it has issued some 13,000 safety recommendations over the years, and its views are closely followed by regulators, operators and lawmakers.
