PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Federal Transit Administration has issued a blistering report outlining inadequate safety procedures at SEPTA that have contributed to a rise in bus crashes and assaults on employees.
The investigation was launched after a series of incidents a year ago that included five SEPTA vehicle crashes in a single week last July.
— July 21, 2023: One SEPTA bus rear-ended another on Roosevelt Boulevard , injuring more than a dozen and killing a 72-year-old woman.
— July 23, 2023: A SEPTA bus hit a pole in Philadelphia, minorly injuring four passengers.
— July 24, 2023: Seven people were hurt when two SEPTA trolleys collided in Upper Darby , Delaware County.
— July 25, 2023: just before 9 p.m. A SEPTA bus hopped the curb and crashed into a Center City storefront at 15th and Walnut streets.
— July 27, 2023: An out-of-service trolley undergoing maintenance work at a Southwest Philadelphia SEPTA depot somehow made its way to the intersection of Island and Woodland avenues, where it hit an SUV and crashed into a historic house . Three people were injured.
In a 120-page report released Monday, the FTA faulted SEPTA for having a deteriorating safety record with higher rates of fatalities, injuries and accidents compared to other agencies over the last five years.
The FTA is ordering SEPTA to take 24 separate actions to improve safety, including providing more training for new employees, developing regular performance evaluations for drivers and reviewing policies for managing worker fatigue. The FTA also directed PennDOT to take a series of actions to tighten oversight of SEPTA safety.
The report said SEPTA’s staffing shortage results in excessive overtime, which leads to more tired operators on the clock.
The FTA is ordering SEPTA to provide more safety training for new rail and bus operators, noting that inexperienced drivers have the most collisions.
"We're looking to see if there are some things that can be added to the new-hire training that can address some of those concerns that were brought up in the report," SEPTA spokesman Andrew Busch told KYW Newsradio. "If we're increasing the number of hires, we are going to have younger operators out on the road. We want to make sure that they're as equipped as possible.”
The FTA also points out that assaults on drivers have spiked from 98 in 2018 to 572 in 2023. The report directs SEPTA to investigate redesigning bus and trolley operator compartments to protect transit workers from assaults.
"We're doing a couple of things with their compartments,” Busch said. “One, is testing bulletproof shields. We're also looking at a different way to shape that enclosure that they have."
The report also ordered SEPTA to clarify how transit workers should respond to a rider who tries to avoid paying their fare. Busch said there are automated audio announcements on buses stating that fares are required, and drivers are instructed to record incidents where riders don’t pay.
"That's a way that we're trying to make sure that we don't escalate things on board vehicles. So it's a policy that's in place. We think we have to communicate it a little better in some areas," Busch said.
Hiring more staff will require additional funding, Busch acknowledged. "Working with PennDOT and the FTA on these things, we think, is going to be positive — because we're going to see what recommendations there might be to improve on what we're doing."
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