Page:Derailment of Amtrak Passenger Train 188 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania May 12, 2015.djvu/35

NTSB Four of the passengers who died were recovered under or near the third passenger car. Two of these four passengers were partially ejected from window openings and trapped under the third car. Another passenger was found under car 3, and the last was found adjacent to car 3. These two were most likely ejected from the train through window openings after the windows had separated. As previously mentioned, six windows were completely separated from car 2, and all nine of the right-side windows were separated from their openings from car 3. The NTSB concludes that if the passenger car windows had remained intact and secured in the cars, some passengers who died would not have been ejected and would likely have survived the accident.

The NTSB has been concerned about passengers being ejected through window openings for more than 40 years. In 1972, the NTSB noted that window ejections accounted for a large portion of passenger fatalities. Because of this, the NTSB issued Safety Recommendation R-72-32 to the FRA—

"In establishing near-future safety standards for railroad and rail rapid-transit passenger cars, give priority to the problem of ejection of passengers through large side windows. Regulations should be promulgated on realistic performance tests. This source of fatalities, even though small in number, is of such a large proportion among passenger fatalities as to warrant action prior to the issuance of the Mechanical Standards."

The problem remains serious. The Philadelphia accident was the second passenger rail accident in less than 2 years that resulted in the deaths of passengers as a result of ejection through damaged or displaced passenger car windows. Similar window separations were seen in the December 1, 2013, crash of a Metro-North passenger train near Bronx, New York. That train, which derailed at 82 mph, consisted of seven passenger cars and a locomotive. Four passengers were killed, and 57 passengers and 4 crewmembers were injured. In that case, the NTSB found that a contributing factor to the severity of the accident was the loss of windows that resulted in the fatal ejection of four passengers from the train. As a result of that accident, the NTSB issued the following recommendation to the FRA on December 2, 2014: "Develop a performance standard to ensure that windows (e.g., glazing, gaskets, and any retention hardware) are retained in the window opening structure during an accident and incorporate the standard into 49 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 238.221 and 49 CFR 238.421 to require that passenger railcars meet this standard. (R-14-74)"

The FRA responded on March 25, 2015, that it was developing a research program to test all safety aspects of window systems, including window retention and passenger containment during potential accident scenarios, as well as emergency egress, rescue access, and impact 25