Bronx Accident Prompts SEPTA Review

NBC 10 reports that SEPTA is reviewing its safety procedures in the wake of Sunday’s fatal train accident in the Bronx. In the meantime, the transit agency has finished installation of a $150 million “automatic train control” system to prevent on-track collisions with other trains, and is spending $170 million on a “Positive Train Control” system that can override an engineer and take control of a train during an emergency; the second system is due to be completed in 2015.

“It basically prevents overspeeding which potentially could have been involved in this accident as a cause and it will also prevent you from going through a red signal,” Jeffrey Knueppel, Deputy General Manager of SEPTA, told NBC. “It provides you a greater level of safety than what we currently have out there.”