Traveling dangerously in America
A News21/Center for Public Integrity investigation
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Americans are exposed every day to risks in highway, air, rail and water travel that could be reduced if federal regulatory agencies and states moved faster to carry out recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates accidents and proposes way to prevent them.
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Fatigue
Over the past four decades, more than 320 fatigue-related accidents and incidents have taken nearly 750 lives in airplane crashes alone. The NTSB has issued 138 fatigue-related safety recommendations since 1967. Only 68 have been implemented.
FATIGUE STORIES
- Efforts to curb fatigue-related accidents often languish
- Fatigue standards lag behind research
- Is your pilot napping?
- MAP: Accidents related to pilot fatigue
FROM THE POST
Aviation
More than 2,300 people have been killed from ice buildup on aircraft, problems on runways, faulty aircraft maintenance and repairs and overtired pilots, despite dozens of NTSB recommendations to address those problems.
AVIATION STORIES
- NTSB recommendations aimed at preventing plane crashes go unheeded
- Pilots fight video recorders in cockpits
- PHOTOS: Mock cockpit camera
- Arizona man seeks answer to parents' deaths
- Economics and safety collide in airplane repairs
- GRAPHIC: Runway incidents 2002-2009
- Pilot shortage may develop as job loses luster
- Airline safety act targets long-standing issues
FROM THE POST
Highways
Motor vehicle accidents claim more lives than any other kind of transportation accident, yet no federal system exists for enforcing safety standards. That’s left up to states, which have been both inconsistent and resistant.
HIGHWAYS STORIES
- States resist highway safety measures
- Medical cards for drivers easy to get, easy to ignore
- VIDEO: Fit to drive
- Ohio doctor develops trucker database
- Companies skirt safety rules, keep driving
- Illegal bus company re-opens under new names
- 'Black boxes' could solve crash mysteries
FROM THE POST
Railways
For four decades, the NTSB has investigated accident after accident that investigators said could have been prevented with automated train control technology. Had railroads installed such a system, more than 780 accidents might have been averted.
RAILWAYS STORIES
FROM THE POST
Marine
Since the NTSB recommended safety management systems in 2002, there have been about 1,700 accidents involving domestic passenger vessels. Many of them could have been prevented if safety systems had been in place.
MARINE STORIES
About this project
This project was reported by journalism students in the Carnegie-Knight News21 program in collaboration with the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization.
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