The complete implementation of a crucial safety feature could have prevented Sunday's Amtrak crash in South Carolina, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt said at a press conference, according to The Hill.
The collision, which killed two people and injured dozens of others, would not have happened if Positive Train Control (PTC) was used, said Sumwalt, explaining that PTC automatically decreases the speed of a train traveling over the limit.
Railroads have until the end of the year to install the costly safety feature.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who is on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, pressed in a tweet for quicker implementation.
The collision comes on the heels of two other deadly Amtrak train crashes in the last two months, including the one in Virginia a few days ago that killed one person.
The NTSB said PTC would have also slowed a train that derailed in December while going across a highway overpass in an incident in which three people were killed in Washington state.
Fortune reported that three years ago Congress voted to extend the original 2015 deadline for nationwide PTC implementation to the end of this year, which some are blaming for the latest failures.
Others are pointing out that despite President Donald Trump's rhetoric on major infrastructure investment, his 2018 budget proposal cut money for federal Amtrak by 13 percent, and in December the administration pulled $13 billion in funding for Amtrak rail maintenance that had been earmarked by the Obama administration.
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