NTSB: Three more recommendations on ‘Most Wanted’ list have been implemented

Washington — The National Transportation Safety Board has announced that three more recommendations from its 2019-2020 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements have been implemented, boosting the total number of recommendations fulfilled to 38.

According to an April 20 press release, the most recent implementations include changing Amtrak’s train dispatcher rules to prohibit potentially distracting activities, such as cellphone use, while dispatchers are on duty. The recommendation stemmed from an April 2016 collision between an Amtrak train and a backhoe near Chester, PA, resulting in two worker deaths.

Additionally, the Federal Aviation Administration announced in January that it has enhanced its medical monitoring of pilots diagnosed with drug or alcohol dependency, while Walmart developed and implemented a fatigue management program after a June 2014 fatal semitrailer crash near Cranbury, NJ.

NTSB points out, however, that none of the agency’s “Focused 46” recommendations has been implemented. These are the recommendations the agency “believes can and should be implemented” during the two-year period. The “Most Wanted” list features 268 total recommendations.

“Today, transportation is safer than it was before these recommendations were implemented,” NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said. “But there is so much more to do. There are still 230 recommendations from our 2019-2020 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements that have not been addressed.”