European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 5, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse When disaster strikes find out Why up go teams Jet within hours to disaster scene this one at Jacksonville fla., where lethal Hydrogen Chloride leaked from a Rai and injured 27 who inhaled fumes. By John Barbour associated press thing stems the flow of the nation. Americans on the move. Not ticket lines Security risks costly gasoline toll Booths blowouts insurance. Not even death. The log records 220 million airline Passen Gers a year 2.5 billion aircraft Miles 100 million cars travelling More than a trillion Miles seven million motor cycles four out of five americans Over 16 licensed to drive 325,000 Miles of Railroad track 28,000 locomotives 1.7 million Railroad cars. The Cost was More than 10,000 Railroad accidents a year More than 4,500 private air plane crashes More than 44,000 dead on streets and highways More than the mind can tolerate and a potential for a lot More. In the blur of coming and going with the detach ment of a Tennis pro who isolates the stroke from the game a Crew of some 200 experts dissects the fail ure of Metal and men in microscopic detail and examines the pathology of disaster the autopsy of blame. This is the staff of the National transportation safety Board a creature of Congress. Its go teams Jet to the scene of crashes explosions derailments in hours. They pick through the remains the twisted Metal the human debris. They reconstruct what they can of the Accident from aircraft tapes skid Marks broken rails and ruptured dramatic improvement in Domestic airline safety Over the years is credited to investigations by this group that has earned the reputation of the world s Best Acci Dent probes. The year 1976 was the safest in airline history for . Airlines with Only 28 accidents four of them fatal. The death toll of 45 was the lowest since 1954 when 42 persons died in three fatal accidents. In 1977, the record was marred by the worst airline tragedy in history the take off collision of two 747s in the Canary islands that killed 582. Board experts rushed to the scene and recreated the weird events that involved fog and misunderstood Tower instructions. Many of the dead the Board s experts found would have lived if they had moved promptly to emergency exits. Instead they sat tight and burned in their seats. It irks James King Board chairman that people should accept the inevitability of accidental death and injury. He and other Board members Point to air plane safety As an example of what can be done. I think now in safety it s second Only to the intercity bus King says. King likens the fatalistic notion that accidents will happen with similar notions about poverty or disease. That s nonsense. Nobody has to die of smallpox today. My father had diphtheria. I never had it. I had Scarlet fever mumps whooping cough. Not one of my children did. We Are not condemned to certain the Board is approaching new horizons new hazards to test its capability. Prime among them Are Railroad derailments involving hazardous chemicals and Highway deaths. The railroads bring perils to Small town America. Every Day Railroad cars full of dangerous cargo Roll through a thousand downtown. The potential for disaster is enormous. In one february weekend one of 24 derailed cars exploded in Waverly tenn., killing 12 and setting the Down town on fire near Cades tenn., 24 cars on another train derailed and leaked lethal sodium hydroxide forcing 100 people from their Homes and near Youngstown fla., an other train derailed spewing poisonous chlorine into the air killing eight and sickening 67 others. In the first two months of 1977, 10 derailments involving dangerous materials forced people from their Homes from West Virginia to Michigan. There Are some 7,000 derailments a year. Board experts estimate that one third of All . Rail Road accidents Are preventable by the use of current regulations and know How. Experts found that Many of 582 who died in crash of two 747s on Tenerife would have lived if they had hurried to emergency exits. Expects rails to have a Renaissance but that will or Ole Sale repair of decaying Road Beds and ution might be to have the Federal government try maintenance of the right of Way which rail rave ignored because of their financial condition. To pads would be responsible for maintenance of to no Stock. Rail Accident in Florida the release of danger of rials could have been prevented by installing e Shields on the front of tank cars so that when a devices slip the tank would not be punctured. Could prevent 85 percent of the punctures at the c a few thousand dollars per tank car King says lat in t cheap i know but looking at the Louis Nashville Railroad Accident in Pensacola the Cost . They had to rebuild 12 Miles of track. 1 Ven t even settled the Legal suits yet. By the time ish it s going to be g thinks the Board can convince railroads that is More profitable than living with accidents. Thing for truckers. To meet Overall length regu la truck cabs Are getting smaller and trailers Lotife cramped cabs add to Driver fatigue. At the Ime truck schedules argue against the 55 Mph Smit and trucks Are going faster. Every truck Driver you hear killed they kill 40 i cars King says. The automobiles Are getting 0nd the death toll is going to get responsible Federal Agency is the Bureau of motor safety department of transportation. The Board freight responsibility for the Bureau which has people to Monitor the nation s vehicles started to Issue a report saying you re not doing King says. Then we stopped. It was t fair me sending you Down with a bucket into the hold italic and then telling you the ship Sank because t bail out fast id the Board sent a supporting letter promising a Bureau request for More people equities of the Road that Lead to death aggravate and other Board members. King wonders if the should t pressure the interstate Commerce com 41 to get after trucking firms a s a corporation he recalls. They put a truck Road a lease Job. But they knew the truck. They kept maintenance records because that would Wima Facie evidence of neglect the truck i came Over a Hill and killed eight people injured 2 brakes failed. He s now in jail for 20 years on neg in homicide. The Guys who put him on the Road in the Corpora tre All sitting Back in the Board room. That s i e inc King says could keep track of trucking and make sure they never pull that sort of Tess bits to the pipeline construction in Alaska As a re Ible safety record under difficult weather and Ter in nations. They hired Bush pilots but they made live by the safety Book or get out. By flew More people More dangerous materials in c t weather met their schedules and had an Inczedi Twity record King says. Why it was profitable to you re Only 200-Strong, King explains you have elective. The Board s experts ranging from meter the dramatic improvement in Domestic airline safety Over the years is credited to this group s urologists to metallurgists from old Railroad men to pilots investigate some 800 civil aviation accidents a year some 400 railway accidents and various other catastrophic surface events including Highway pipeline and Marine incidents. It also reviews nearly 4,000 Accident investigations by the Federal aviation administration. The Board can Only recommend action but with the weight of Congress behind it its recommendations Are generally followed by the agencies Over which it has review the Faa the coast guard the Federal High Way administration the Federal railway administration among them. The Board has a Long history. Formerly the investigative Arm of the civil aeronautics Board in 1938, it was changed to the National transportation safety Board in 1966, and established As an Independent Agency in 1974. In 1976, it made 374 safety recommendations 143 in aviation 103 on pipeline operations 58 for rail 32 for Highway safety 27 Marine and 11 on hazardous Materi als. Under Law any Board recommendation must be an swered by the Secretary of transportation within 90 Days in writing. If he chooses to reject any recommendation he must set Forth in detail his reasons. While the Board s experts solve some 96 percent of the air crashes they investigate they Are sometimes stumped when the Accident remains Are burned beyond recognition or lost at sea. In one dc-6 Accident dragging the Gulf of Mexico produced Only two seat cushions. While the technical staff ranges in salary from $18,000 to $47,000, most Accident investigators earn no More than $35,000 and the Board increases its Purview but operates on less than $14 million a year. Former acting Board chairman Kay Bailey would like to see the Board s responsibilities include investigation of All Small aircraft accidents and she thinks that the Board s Marine staff should be beefed up to get ready for tankers carrying liquified natural . But at the same time the Board has to maintain its surveillance of commercial aircraft safety or the death toll will climb again. The amount of Effort that goes into the investigation of a single Accident is immense. For instance on May 24, 1973, 12 cars of a freight train carrying bombs blew up near Benson Ariz. Board experts arrived at the scene to find a big Hole where the final explosion occurred and wreckage scattered for Miles. But the safety Board s experts found where the first signs of an explosion were assembled All the available pieces of that car and began their analysis. The probable cause was in the car floor. It had been saturated with a nitrate fertilizer from a previous cargo. Sparks caused by Brake friction ignited the nitrate in the a floor which burned through producing the initial bomb explosions. Out of it All came special regulations on the shipping of bombs and armaments requiring Brake shoe Protection and Metal Bottoms to guard the Wood against Sparks. Safety Board experts have roamed the Amazon Jungles of Brazil searching for months to find the wreckage of aircraft. They have been called in on plane crashes All Over the world had to Wear sidearms for Protection come away from some disasters in emotional chaos. And always have been Able to function until the Job was done. There is nothing As vivid says Bailey As being on the scene of a tragedy. You Are affected and it s a natural reaction. But i think what makes me feel so Good about working for the Board is that i know we Are going to come out with something that will keep this from happening Only one died in wreck at Hortense ga., but potential for rail disasters in . Is Page 14 the stars and stripes tuesday sober 5, 1978 the stars and stripes Page 15
