The investigation into what sparked a fire on a subway train in Washington Heights earlier this week, injuring 18 people, is raising questions about preventative measures.
Transit officials were back at the scene of Tuesday’s fiery encounter on the 1 line searching for answers, after a train struck an unknown object on the track and third rail at the 191st Street Station.
In a one-on-one interview with CBS News New York, MTA Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said the incident remains under investigation as the transit agency works to pinpoint where the debris came from and what it was.
Cheap and small technology can do wonders, MTA says
The MTA said on Thursday it has been studying technology that helps scan the tracks for debris as the train is moving.
“Incidents like this, usually if it hits the third rail, especially if it’s metal, it disintegrates,” Crichlow said.
It turns out a Google Pixel smartphone is one of several tools the MTA says could have potentially prevented such a dangerous situation.
“It’s telling us in advance, I found something out on the roadbed that could be of concern, please send a maintainer to take a look at this specific location,” Crichlow said.
Back in January, the MTA mounted the phones underneath cars used on the A line to detect irregularities on the rails. They were part of a brief pilot program into whether cheap and small technology, like a cellphone, could enhance the agency’s inspections of more than 600 miles of tracks.
“We would pick out segments of higher-than-normal noise levels and they would send that data to us. We would actually then go out and verify if it’s a defective rail,” said Robert Sarno, an MTA assistant chief track officer.
Screenshots sent to CBS News New York by the MTA from Google shows a log of one trip as a train passed by 14th Street. The software creates rows of information into the kind of issues found, how many, and where it was discovered.
Reporter Elijah Westbrook asked Crichlow if that form of technology could have prevented along the 1 line on Tuesday.
“If this technology works, you could actually hear, the equipment would tell you that ‘I passed this spot, and there’s something on the tracks that rattling,'” Crichlow said. “It does provide information that could prevent something in a similar scenario.”