(The Associated Press circulated the following story by Sarah Brumfield on July 27, 2010.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that Metro and other transit agencies remove faulty signaling equipment that led to a deadly crash last year.
Nine people were killed and dozens injured in the June 2009 collision between a Metro train and another train that was stopped near a station in Washington. The NTSB says an electronic signal should have triggered the approaching train to slow down and stop, but the signal failed.
The board urged Metro and other transit systems that use the same signaling components to identify and remove them. Those systems include Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Cleveland.
Alstom Transport, the company that now owns the supplier of the components, says it is working with these agencies to ensure they use the 1970s-era equipment as safely as possible.