An Analysis of Rail Accidents

Transport

Indicative Literature Review

Accident Theories

Theories of Transport Safety

WMATA Accidents & the Debate

Analysis and Evaluation of the Key Issues

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recorded a number of rail accidents and other incidents within the jurisdiction of the Washington DC Metro Transit Authority (WMATA) in the past six years. A centralized approach taken by the Federal Transport Agency (FTA) and the safety management department has not helped in the reduction of the incidents that are potentially hazardous and detrimental for travelers.

There have been talks about adopting new approaches and methods to deal with the issues that lead to the accidents and incidents. These measures are expected to yield results over a period of 5-10 s. The exposure to the risk of accidents and the safety performance would be reduced by the implementation of the measures (oversight.house.gov, 2015).

Since the process of management of road and rail safety is as good as the way people and resources are utilized, the new measures are expected to show the correlation that exist between the safety management structure currently in place and the repletion of the rail incidents.

The vital transportation needs of the national capital region are met by the WMATA public rail transit and bus systems. There have been several fatal accidents in the last six or more years in the WMATA as, according to the FTA, the organization has faced financial challenges in the way of maintaining the system's infrastructure.

In recent years, the functioning and the financial aspect of WMATA has come under government as well as public scrutiny. The federal government reviewed the functioning and the Government Accountability Office in 2015 and made a number of recommendations as well as reviewed the adherence to the recommendations made by the FTA and the NTSB by WMATA.

The WMATA is overseen by the Oversight Committee although it does not have any regulatory authority. The NTSB also does not have any authority to set or enforce standards on the WMATA although it is charged with investigating accidents within the WMATA (Rudin-Brown and Jamson, 2013).

The recommendations that were made by NTSB were declined by WMATA citing lack of funds and tax advantage leases.

Indicative Literature Review

Accident Theories

The constant accidents and casualties happening within the WMATA jurisdiction has raised a debate about how the authorities have managed crisis and what are the requirements for the safety of travelers and passengers. There is also a rising debate about the authority and jurisdiction and the obligation of the WMATA to adhere to the recommendations made by the NTSB and the WMATA.

However, it is also necessary to look at the established theories and previous studies that have been done on accident prevention and the transport safety to understand the reasons for the frequent accidents in the WMATA area and the possible remedies. It is also important in terms of correlating the present security measures for transport safety and incidents of accidents.

Theories of Transport Safety

The several theories related to accident causation which are believed to have certain degree of some explanatory and predictive value.

The domino theory was proposed and developed by H. W. Heinrich who was a safety engineer and dealt with prevention of industrial accident safety. An accident, as described by Heinrich, is "one factor in a sequence that may lead to an injury" (Friend and Kohn, 2007). He stated that a number of factors fall one after the other as in a domino to complete a chain of factors and reactions resulting in an accident. Each of the factors is dependent on the preceding factor.

The Human Factors Theory extends Heinrich's theory stating that the human errors cause accidents and they are the Dominos of accidents.

Such human errors are classified as overload -- including physical and environmental overloads, inappropriate response and inappropriate activities -- indicating lack of training and misjudgment (Goetsch, 2010).

An extension of the human factors theory is the Accident, Incident theory that states that management failure that includes incompatible work stations and associated tools, unconscious or conscious decisions, systems failure are factors of accident which are referred to as ergonomic traps.

The relationship between environmental factors and diseases is the basis of the Epidemiological theory of accidents. This has two main components - predisposition and situational characteristics. These include environmental factors that can predispose worker while peer pressure, poor attitude and the tendency of risk taking may reduce or stop accidents.

The energy release theory proposed by Willam Haddon, a medical doctor by profession, identified certain strategies in vehicles that can reduce accidents and its impact by releasing the energy that include energy-absorbing steering columns, windshields that are penetration-resistant and padded instrument panel among others (Dhillon, 2011).

The accident prevention theory that deals with normative elements of humans is described as the behavioral theory, also known as the behavior-based safety (BBS) theory, 7 basic principles that include intervention, internal factors identification, motivaiotn for behaving in the desired manner and positive results and adequate behavior among others.

The combination theory states that may or may not fall under one theory or explanation and the possibility is that there would be a combination of factors from various theories and models. This theory stresses that no single theory can be used to describe all accidents universally.

WMATA Accidents & the Debate

It has already been mentioned that the series of accidents especially in the Metro railways under WMATA have given rise to several debates and the Federal agencies and the Federal government have intervened to look into the causes and the possible solutions for to reduce the incidents.

A report published by news agency Reuters on September 30, 2015, states that urgent federal oversight was recommended by the U.S. safety regulators for the WMATA which, according to the report was a "troubled system" (Simpson, 2015).

In recent years, especially in the last 6 years, the underground railways system has been plagued by smoke in the tunnels, frequent breakdowns and some deadly accidents. It was recommended by the NTSB to place the second-busiest U.S. subway system just below the New York's system, under the jurisdiction and watch of the Federal Railroad Administration. There were recommendations and nothing final has been decided as of yet. The agency noted that the primary problem for WMATA was that there was no oversight for the agency.

The review that was carried out earlier in 2015 by the NTSB found little improvement safety oversight at the WMATA since the 2009 Metrorail accident where in which nine people were killed. There have been 11 accidents that have been investigated by NTSB in the last 33 years in the WMATA rail in which 18 people were killed (Simpson, 2015).

Review of the bad condition of the WMATA rail system was also made by the FTA who reviewed the adherence by the WMATA of the recommendations for safety that were made to it be federal agencies since in the last 6 years the report noted that the WMATA has been responsive in a general manner to the 38 recommendations that were made by the FTA which are expected to be implemented in 2016 (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority: Steps Taken to Address Financial Management and Safety Recommendations, 2015).

There have been 4 accidents within the WMATA area in since 2008 and the NTSB had issued 29 safety recommendations. Of the four accidents that were investigated by NTSB, there were related directly to WMATA while a forth to another transit agency.

The safety recommendations included replacing the 1000-series railcars, the installation of the lead car with onboard event recorders for each train set and technology that would alert automatically wayside workers of trains approaching. However, NTSB claimed in the report that WMATA would not probably close the rest of the recommendations till the end of the 2018 as they would require extensive research, time, and significant funding.

Citing an example, the report states that it would cost almost $700 million in a period of 10 years for WMATA to replace the 1000-series railcars (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority: Steps Taken to Address Financial Management and Safety Recommendations, 2015).

According to the FTA the reasons why the WMATA is unable to function properly is primarily related to a lack of manpower, finances and oversight. In a report published in the Washington Post earlier this year, it is claimed that according to go the FTA lack of controlling officers is one of the major causes of the hiccups and the accidents. The report also notes that the rail operations controlling center is distracting that hampers effective traffic management and the system has a general lack of radio discipline. Proper procedures, manuals and checklists are also not present and the use of personal cell phones by the traffic controllers in the control tower.

Hence apart from the lack of finances and safety measures, the problem with WMATA is that of a behavioral nature where there is a general lack of discipline.

The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, Deborah A.P. Hersman, in 2010 on the hearing on the topic of "Moving Forward after the NTSB Report: Making Metro a Safety Leader," recommended the WMATA should concentrate on the elevation of the safety oversight role through the development of a policy statement that would let it assume responsibility for the continued oversight of system safety. The recommendations also include oversight of monitoring of maintenance of system safety by WMATA ad evaluation of the actions taken in response to the recommendations by the NTSB and the FTA (oversight.house.gov, 2015).

Hence from the discussion of the published reports and debates on the issues of WMATA and the accidents it is clear that the primary issue is of lack of financial abilities to implement safety recommendations. However, the overriding debate is the issue of over sighting of the implementation and monitoring where there are several views of the different federal organizations. This should also include the behavioral problems at the operational control centers by the controlling personnel.

Research Question

Based on the above indicative literature review the research questions are as follows:

What is the relative influence of safety culture?

What is the debate about taking responsibility for the safety?

Research Objective

The objective of the above research is to:

Highlighting the failure of the safety systems that are in place in the Washington DC Metro transit and the correlation between the number of accidents over the past 6 years and failed safety system.

To help in the development of a Safety Management System (SMS) approach that would be unique for the WMATA Metro so that there is a reduction in accidents.

The outlining of the framework for total safety management

Research Justification

The results of this study would allow creation of valuable information about tools for safety management which can be used by transit agencies and other organizations.

Research Methodology

The process of collecting information and data in relation to an issue or a topic that is done by a researcher with the aim of concluding the research and arriving at a decision is referred to as the research methodology. While both primary and secondary research methods are included in research methodology, in this study we used secondary approach (Samuels, Biddle and Emmett, 2009).

Methodology is also defined as the process of systematic and theoretical application and analysis of data that is applied for a research. Research methodology essentially analyses and selects that method and the principles for use in research that helps forming of the framework of research. The possible models of theories and the approach to qualitative techniques and issues like the paradigm of a subject are considered in research methodology (Jha, 2008).

For this study we use the qualitative approach. The use of this social constructivist concept to focus on the reality which is socially constructed as the prime basis of a research, such an approach to research is termed as qualitative. Understanding of the human behavior and the experiences that the human have undergone is the prime idea during the period of data collection and analysis. This is the prime objective of the research approach. Such an approach does not only depend on statistical data evaluation but also takes into active consideration human emotions and behavior. This research approach attempts to understand the complex nature of the human behavior while also attempting the unraveling the complexities associated with human emotions (Weinberg, 2002).

The data collection method for this study is the secondary data collection method where the previous research that has been published and other published public documents like newspaper reports and government reports formed the sources of data and information. Since the qualitative approach was decided for this research, therefore the study utilized and concentrated the broad qualitative aspects to relate the present safety standards and measures to the accidents and other incidents within the WMATA. The sources of secondary data were published reports, books, journals, government reports, reports by various organization, official company reports and data available in the public domain, published papers by colleges and universities websites and e-journals. The research also used the internet to find data and secondary information about the issue from written materials

Ethical issues

While collecting data from secondary sources regulations and norms were followed. Data protection norms for internet sources were maintained and proper credit was given to published and non-copyrighted works available in the public domain (Pimple, 2008). Where ever needed the authors and concerned agencies and publishers were informed about their work being used in the research.

Limitations

Limitations in this research can arise from personal bias of the researcher. In this research all possible measures were taken to ensure that there was no personal bias in involved.

Analysis and Evaluation of the Key Issues

The data that was collected from the secondary sources clearly point to three aspects about the repeated incidents of accidents within the WMATA area. The primary reason can be attributed to the lack of management which is followed by a series of factors that are related to each other and dependent on each other.

According to the theories of transport accident safety, it can be said that the combined theoretical effect is applicable to the subject of the accident safety. The framework for the combination would be taken from the domino theory, the human factors theory and the accident, incident theory. From the analysis of the secondary data, it is clear that the spate of accident at WMATA especially in the last 6 months is combination of several factors. The primary factor is the lack of oversight and responsibility taking and accountability for the safety of metro, the behavioral problems at the control centers and financial problems.

It is clear that each of the factors is not singularly applicable for the bad condition of the Metro and the WMATA but a combination of several factors. However according to the domino theory, these factors happen one after the other starting with the lack of ownership and accountability and over-sighting for the safety. The chain of events is completed that complement each other to result in hick up in the services and accidents.

A part of the errors are definitely human and hence the human factors theory is applicable to the cause of the accidents. As is evident from the data collected, the human errors include physical and environmental overloads and inappropriate response and inappropriate activities.