Sleep apnea went undiagnosed in engineers in 2 train crashes
The engineers of two commuter trains that slammed into New York City-area stations in the last year, killing one person and injuring more than 200 others, were suffering from undiagnosed sleep apnea and have no memory of the crashes, according to investigative documents made public Thursday.
Both trains were going more than double the speed limit and crashed at stations that had been exempted from federal regulations requiring automatic speed controls that could’ve slowed or stopped them.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the common circumstances of the Sept. 29, 2016, New Jersey Transit crash in Hoboken, New Jersey, and the Jan. 4, 2017, Long Island Rail Road crash in Brooklyn warranted combining findings and recommendations in one report to be released early next year.
The 2,500 pages of documents released Thursday, including medical reports and interview transcripts, offer a glimpse into what investigators have learned but don’t include conclusions on what caused the crashes.