by KYW's Ian Bush
An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board released Wednesday faults SEPTA and two employees for the collision of two R2 trains in Abington two years ago. Dozens of people were injured in the accident (see previous story).
In the minutes before the crash, alarms went off, which the NTSB says were ignored by both a dispatcher and an on-board engineer, who's since been fired. And a backup to stop the train automatically hadn't yet been installed -- and still isn't set up in nearly a quarter of all Regional Rail lines.
A matter of money, says SEPTA's Fran Kelly:
"Prior to the report being released, we had already begun to institute its recommendations and have made several important changes to our warning systems."
Including installing a fail-safe in the computers at SEPTA dispatch operations in center city, though the NTSB notes it took 15 months after the accident for the transit agency to do so.
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