For more than 40 years, any time there’s an accident with a commercial plane, train, bus, or limousine, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is charged with investigating the disaster to find a probable cause. The NTSB then offers concrete safety recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation—ideas that can often be implemented immediately to avoid repeating the tragedies in the future.
But more often than not, these federal regulatory agencies don’t move quickly to mandate those recommendations, or they don’t move at all. Issues such as child safety seats on airplanes, positive speed control on trains, better bus construction, fire and smoke suppression in cargo holds—and we’re just getting started. As a result, each year a frustrated NTSB publishes a “Most Wanted List” of its most urgent safety recommendations. Watch my special report on CBS News:
For more information about airline and travel safety, check out:
- What Are the Safest Airlines in the World?
- One Year After MH370: Has Flight Tracking Changed?
- Flight Anxiety After the Air Disasters of 2014: One Pilot’s Opinion
By Peter Greenberg for PeterGreenberg.com
