U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., questionsthe federal government’s decision to cancel a directive that requires sleep apnea testing for train workers and truckers.
Schumer says the sleep disorder is suspected to be responsible for the 2013 Metro-North derailment in the Bronx, the Hoboken train crash last year, and the Atlantic Terminal derailment earlier this year.
“For these federal agencies to go rogue and pull the plug on sleep apnea, there is no good reason for it. We’ve called them, we’ve asked for an explanation and they don’t have a good one. If there had been testing for sleep apnea, there would be people alive walking the face of the earth today, who are not, unfortunately, because the engineer had sleep apnea.”
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and Federal Railroad Administration agreed to the standards in 2016, but reversed course last week.
Schumer says even though the Long Island Rail Road and Metro North have committed to the testing, they could back out, now that there is no requirement.