How has Metro responded to NTSB recommendations?
WMATA has had a few rough months with worker deaths and bus-pedestrian collisions, and with the June 22 Metro accident still fresh in our minds, the agency has come under fire for its safety record. Dave Stroup recently wrote the second installment in his “Price of Safety” series looking at WMATA’s safety culture. Some of the comments there wondered about WMATA’s track record in terms of NTSB recomendations. The goal of the National Transportation Safety Board is to improve safety in our transportation system. Sometimes issues stretch beyond the agency where an accident occured. When this happens, they often issue recomendations to all the applicable agencies. A crash in Chicago in January 1976, over two months before Metro opened, resulted in a set of recomendations to WMATA (issued in August 1976, after the system had opened). WMATA and other agencies were responsible for responding to NTSB by either complying or giving reasons why they would not do so. Since 1970, the NTSB has issue
