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NTSB: Communication breakdown led to UWS subway train collision, derailment

By FOX 5 NY STAFF
Updated  January 25, 2024 5:28pm EST
Upper West Side
FOX 5 NY

NTSB: Communication error led to UWS train crash

The NTSB has revealed that a communication breakdown likely led to the Upper West Side subway collision that injured at least 20 people in a preliminary report on Thursday.

NEW YORK - The NTSB has released its preliminary report into the derailment of a 1 train earlier this month that left 22 passengers and 3 crew members injured.

In the incident, a disruptive passenger vandalized a subway train on the Upper West Side, causing the crew to stop the train and leading to a low-speed crash between trains.

According to the NTSB, the crash happened due to a communication breakdown. As the 1 train approached the 96th Street Station, radio communication was lost between the train's flagger and the supervisor.

That miscommunication led to the train running a red signal and colliding with another train, which was executing a track crossover. 

Cleanup underway after subway train derailment

The NTSB is conducting its own investigation into the low-speed collision and derailment that injured over two dozen people on Thursday and has caused transit havoc.

The track in the area was equipped with trip-stops, which activate a train's emergency brakes if a train passes through a signal requiring a stop, but because the brakes on the first five railcars had been cut out, the emergency brakes could not be activated by the trip-stop. 

The NTSB's investigation will continue to focus on operational and communication protocols for NYC Transit and broader issues like federal requirements for railcar event recorders.