Trump, GOP-led Congress must answer for train crash

Shortly after last week’s Amtrak crash south of Seattle that killed three people and injured dozens, President Donald J. Trump took to Twitter with this post:

“The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!”

What’s ironic about the Republican president’s tweet is that he had the opportunity to focus on the nation’s infrastructure as soon as he took office in January.

Not only did Trump have a Republican led Congress, but Democrats on Capitol Hill made it clear they were willing to work with the new administration on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill to address the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges and other transportation needs, includ- ing upgrading the railway system.

Unfortunately, partisan politics reared its ugly head, and the White House and Republicans in Congress decided that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act was the most important legislative initiative for the new administration.

That’s why Trump’s tweet rings hollow. It should be noted that when he was running for the presidency last year as a nonpolitician and Washington outsider, the billionaire real-estate developer from New York City blasted his predecessors for being reactive rather than proactive in dealing with the important issues confronting the nation.

But when Trump as president had the chance to be proactive, he turned out to be no better than previous presidents, both Democratic and Republican.

We have long advocated a full-fledged infrastructure-improvement program to address not only the many problems plaguing the nation’s highways and byways, bridges, railways and airports, but to put Americans to work.

We applauded candidate Trump when he bemoaned the fact that the condition of America’s airports, for example, were an embarrassment compared with those in other countries.

But the need for a national infrastructure program isn’t just about appearance and comparisons. There are legitimate safety concerns that the federal government can no longer ignore.

Last week’s Amtrak crash is a stark reminder of what can happen when Congress fails to act on behalf of the American people.

CRASH-DATA FINDINGS

According to the Associated Press’ analysis of crash data, nearly 300 people have died in crashes in the past half-century. Those deaths could have been prevented if railroads across the U.S. had implemented critical speed-control technology.

Despite evidence that the so-called Positive Train Control system could save lives, Congress extended the deadlines for rail companies to implement it.

In the Washington state crash, the train was traveling at 78 mph in a 30 mph zone. The engineer did not place the train’s brake handle in the emergency-braking position, but that action would not have been necessary had Positive Train Control been activated.

“We have recommended PTC for decades,” Bella Dinh-Zarr, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told the Associated Press. “Unfortunately, the deadline was moved farther into the future, and every year that we wait to implement PTC to its fullest extent means that more people will be killed and injured.”

It is noteworthy that the NTSB first recommended using “automatic train control” after two Penn Central commuter trains collided in Darien, Conn., in August 1969. Four people were killed and 43 were injured.

Since then, crashes that could have been prevented with PTC have led to 298 deaths, 6,763 injuries and nearly $385 million in property damage.

The GPS-based technology is designed to automatically slow or stop trains that are going too fast and can take over control of a train when an engineer is distracted or incapacitated.

PTC has been installed on 24 percent of the nation’s passenger route miles and 40 percent of the freight route miles.

It is clear that Congress’ willingness to extend deadlines is to blame for the crashes that are occurring on the nation’s railroad network.

The latest extension is until the end of 2018, but railroads can seek delays for implementing PTC until 2020.

That’s unacceptable, and President Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress need to hear from the American people.