White House Weighs in on Amtrak Crashes Before House Transportation PTC Hearing
Department of Transportation officials are working to “determine what went so horribly wrong” in two separate Amtrak crashes last week “and they'll identify what needs to be done to ensure it doesn’t happen again,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj…
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Shah told pool reporters Monday. Three people died in the two crashes -- one in Crozet, Virginia, of a train carrying dozens of Capitol Hill Republican lawmakers to their retreat in West Virginia (see 1801310046), and a second incident early Sunday when a Miami-bound Amtrak train crashed south of Columbia, South Carolina. National Safety Transportation Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt said Sunday that positive train control “could have avoided” the South Carolina crash, in which the Amtrak train hit an idling CSX train. An Amtrak engineer and conductor died in that incident. The House Transportation Committee’s Railroads Subcommittee is planning a Feb. 15 hearing on PTC implementation that will include Amtrak, Federal Railroad Administration, NTSB and industry officials.