Proactive Use of Recorded Data for Accident Prevention

In its railroad accident investigations, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) relies on data recovered from recorders to determine train speed, direction of travel, distance traveled, throttle position, brake application, cab and/or wayside signals, and applicable communications from before and during the accident. Since 1995 the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has had the regulatory responsibility for establishing the minimum parameters to be recorded and the standards that event recorders must meet. The railroad industry also voluntarily records information on train movements and warning devices for its own use. This paper will address the use of recorders, the regulations that govern them, the history of the Safety Board’s use of event-recorder data in its investigations, and the future of event recorders in accident investigation.

• Record URL:
  http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/1999/RP9901.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  National Transportation Safety Board

  490 L'Enfant Plaza, SW
  Washington, DC  United States  20594

  International Transportation Safety Association

  Apeldoorn,   Netherlands 
• Authors:
  • Dobranetski, Ed
  • Case, Dave
• Conference:
  • Transportation Recording: 2000 and Beyond. International Symposium on Transportation Recorders
  • Location: Arlington VA, United States
  • Date: 1999-5-3 to 1999-5-5
• Publication Date: 1999

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Appendices;
• Pagination: pp 99-120
• Monograph Title: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Transportation Recorders. Transportation Recording: 2000 and Beyond, May 3-5, 1999, Arlington, Virginia

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Brakes; Communications; Crash investigation; Event data recorders; History; Prevention; Railroad crashes; Railroad signals; Regulations; Speed; Throttles; Trip length; Utilization
• Uncontrolled Terms: Direction of travel
• Subject Areas: History; Law; Railroads; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01088096
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 30 2008 12:31PM