Safety advisory implemented on day of LIRR Brooklyn crash, MTA says

MTA representatives said Wednesday they had begun implementing a federal transportation agency’s safety recommendations to avoid crashes on the same day that a Long Island Rail Road train slammed to a stop and injured more than 100 people in Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn this month.

The Federal Railroad Administration’s advisory was issued on Dec. 5, two months after a NJ Transit train crashed in Hoboken, New Jersey, and a month before the Jan. 4 crash that occurred when a rush-hour train came into the station and struck a bumping block at 10 miles per hour — twice the speed limit.

The Brooklyn crash yielded no serious injuries, but the one in Hoboken resulted in about 100 injured people and at least one death.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Aaron Donovan said the provisions of the advisory were being implemented even as the LIRR train jostled passengers when it came to a halt in Brooklyn, sparking panic in the busy underground station.

He said the MTA has gone beyond the recommendations of the advisory — which are not mandatory — and require a second crew member to be in the cab with the operators of trains while entering the terminal. The advisory only asks that a crew member be “in communication” with the operator.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates train accidents, has not yet determined the cause of that crash so, Donovan said, it is unclear whether the recommendations would have prevented such an incident.

The engineer, an unidentified 18-year LIRR veteran, was interviewed but couldn’t recall the crash, officials have said.