LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Victims' Families Left in Dark on Rail Probe

The train crash involving the South Shore commuter line that left three people dead is another tragic story involving what may have been an avoidable accident ["Warning too late: Three die as train rams truck," news story, June 19]. The problem with this line apparently is so great, with as many as five accidents in the last eight years, that it has prompted a U.S. senator and a congressman to call for an assessment of the rail commuter line.

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) have asked the National Transportation Safety Board to conduct "a special investigation to assess the overall safety" of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, which operates the Chicago South Shore and South Bend RR.

In a joint June 18 letter to the head of the NTSB, James Hall, Lugar and Visclosky said "a safety assessment is necessary to identify and correct any existing safety problems and to restore confidence in this vital transportation system."

What compounds the public's mistrust is its exclusion through the governmental investigative process that takes months, even years, to come to a conclusion. Through all of this, family members of those killed or injured in these tragic accidents are forced to sit on the sidelines and await the results before any information can be obtained from a governmental agency.

Typically, as soon as a major rail or aviation accident happens, investigators from the NTSB are on the scene, combing the site in an attempt to discover the cause of the crash. In the case of the most recent South Shore accident, a 14-person crew was immediately dispatched from Washington, D.C., to examine everything from the crossbars and signals to the train's brakes.

The investigatory process includes a number of parties, including the appointment of technical experts from companies involved in the accident: from railroad maintenance crews to manufacturers of the rail equipment to the operators of the commuter system itself. These entities, oddly enough, may be the very parties later found to be liable for the accident.

Yet, the innocent families of those who lost loved ones or those who suffered through the accident must wait and wonder, with no word on what is going on.

The NTSB was created in 1968 with the mandate to be an independent, impartial investigating body. Its mission is to determine the probable cause of an accident and to make safety recommendations to prevent similar ac dents from occurring in the future.

If the NTSB, however, employed more of an outreach program of public participation, its goal would be enhanced and its workings would carry more credence with the public.

These legislators, as well as others on Capitol Hill, should be looking at the bigger picture. Over the next year, Congress will be considering reauthorization of the NTSB. This agency can provide a greater role for those who really need-and deserve-the answers, as soon as possible. Families of those killed or injured in rail accidents should be allowed to be a proactive part of the investigatory process.