RobotRisk Autonomous Systems Incident & Risk Register
RobotRisk / Metro-North / 2013-12-01

Spuyten Duyvil derailment - no PTC/alerter to catch engineer error

S5 · 12/01
2013 · 07:19 ET · Metro-North · Bronx, NY, USA

Record

CompanyMetro-North
Categoryother
Typefatality
Date12/01
2013
Time of day07:19 ET
LocationBronx, NY, USA · Spuyten Duyvil
SeverityS5 (fatality or catastrophic loss)
Scale1 train / 4 fatalities, ~70 injured
Confidencehigh
VerificationYes - adversarially checked against the cited source
SourceThe New York Times

What happened

A Metro-North train derailed at 82 mph in a 30 mph curve at Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx after the engineer, who had fallen asleep/lost situational awareness, failed to brake; NTSB found the absence of Positive Train Control and an inadequate in-cab alerter/warning system were contributing safety deficiencies. 4 passengers died and dozens were injured.

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