(The following story by Larry Higgs appeared on the Asbury Park Press website on April 18.)
ASBURY PARK, N.J. — NJ Transit officials have hired a consultant to look at the “root cause” of five incidents in which doors on moving trains carrying passengers opened suddenly.
An April 8 report by Executive Director Richard Sarles to NJ Transit’s board detailed causes of the five incidents, which were reported by officials of the United Transportation Union Local 60 last month.
In addition to dealing with the five specific door problems, Sarles said NJ Transit has hired an outside consultant, the GBS Group, to do an analysis.
“We wanted to make sure we did everything possible. We hired an outside consultant who is very good in assisting us to do a root cause analysis,” Sarles said in an interview. “They started and we’ll see what the results are. If there are improvements we can make as a result of that, we’ll do it.”
UTU officials, who represent conductors and assistant conductors, maintain that problems with NJ Transit equipment was to blame for the Nov. 21, 2006, death of passenger John D’Agostino, who was caught by his shoulder and arm in a closed train door as he disembarked in Bradley Beach and was dragged to his death.
NJ Transit and Federal Railroad Administration investigations faulted the train crew, particularly blaming an assistant conductor who was in the wrong operating position in Bradley Beach.
In early April, an arbitrator appointed by the National Mediation Board upheld NJ Transit’s firing of two members of the three-person train crew, but reinstated the locomotive engineer.
Patrick Reilly, UTU Local 60 chairman, brought the door-opening incidents to the board to back the union’s contention that the carrier is overlooking equipment problems and blaming train crews.
The most serious incident happened on a Raritan Valley Line train on Feb. 19, when a train car door closed on a passenger’s arm and remained closed. Other passengers had to pry open the door. The crew reported this was the second such incident, Reilly said.
Sarles’ report said that two mechanical devices in the door were out of alignment, including a device that detects obstructions and reopens the door. The same car was involved in a Jan. 4, 2008, door malfunction. The rail car was checked for other door problems.
The other incidents were:
• Feb. 11: Center and end doors of Northeast Corridor train 3729 opened after the train cleared the Hudson River tunnel in Weehawken after a power interruption. NJ Transit’s investigation found a power interruption caused a short through a key in a control panel, which triggered the doors to open. Crews have been ordered not to leave keys in control panels when trains are moving, the report said.
• Feb. 13: Some doors on Coast Line train 3275 were open while the train was in motion as it departed Penn Station New York. NJ Transit mechanical staff and outside experts determined that water seeped in an electrical cabinet, causing a short circuit. Crews have been told visually to inspect that doors are closed.
• Feb. 26: Door No. 4 of car 6028 opened after Morris and Essex train 813 departed from a station. An inspection of the door found the door needed to be adjusted and a defective door switch was replaced.
• Feb. 27: The center door of the second car opened while Northeast Corridor train 3830 was traveling in the Hudson River tunnel to Penn Station New York. A new motor control relay was installed, and a technician rode the train and found no other issues, the report said.
• Feb. 29: Police report a center door was open on Morris and Essex train 6614 as the train passed through the Secaucus station. An out-of-adjustment lock-out bar, which caused the door to open 2 to 3 inches, was repaired, the report said.
The next to latest generation of railcars, the Comet Vs, had certain door issues in design and hardware when they were delivered, Sarles said in the report. Alstom, which built the rail cars, provided 19 modifications to the door-closing software and designed a fix for a mechanical issue, the report said.
Alstom is working on a problem where the metal door frames on Comet Vs rub, making electronic equipment re-open and close doors, sensing an obstruction. The rail car that dragged D’Agostino to his death was an earlier model Comet.
A lawyer representing the D’Agostino family has filed a lawsuit in Freehold charging NJ Transit with negligence.
A report by the Federal Railroad Administration last December blamed the train crew for having a door bypass switch engaged and faulted an assistant conductor for being in the wrong place. The union contends the train doors should have reopened as in an elevator and allowed D’Agostino to escape.
Union officials said that since crews cannot open rail car doors or windows in the doors, it is impossible to see up and down the length of a train and that it wouldn’t have mattered where the conductors were, they wouldn’t have been able to see D’Agostino.
The FRA report came more than a year after the accident and included a retesting by the FRA of the train’s door equipment. This was done after union officials raised questions about whether members were to blame. The FRA did fine NJ Transit for operating a locomotive in an unsafe condition.
Sarles defended NJ Transit and said in the report that last year, there were 67 million door operations and door malfunctions are extensively investigated.