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Federal official: DC subway hasn’t improved safety

A photograph of smoke is displayed as members of a safety oversight group deliver a presentation on the probable cause of the Jan. 12, 2015 Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Metrorail accident near the L'Enfant Plaza during a National Transportation Safety Board meeting in Washington, Tuesday, May 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
A photograph of smoke is displayed as members of a safety oversight group deliver a presentation on the probable cause of the Jan. 12, 2015 Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Metrorail accident near the L'Enfant Plaza during a National Transportation Safety Board meeting in Washington, Tuesday, May 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) A photograph of smoke is displayed as members of a safety oversight group deliver a presentation on the probable cause of the Jan. 12, 2015 Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Metrorail accident near the L'Enfant Plaza during a National Transportation Safety Board meeting in Washington, Tuesday, May 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

By Associated Press 1 min read

WASHINGTON (AP) – The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board says Washington’s subway system appears not to have made meaningful safety improvements since a fatal accident in 2009.

The board is meeting Tuesday to determine what caused a January 2015 fire inside a downtown tunnel that killed one passenger and injured dozens more.

NTSB investigators have found problems with the third-rail power cables and repeated water leaks at the site of the electrical malfunction that led to the fire.

The board made several recommendations to the Metro subway system after a 2009 crash that killed nine people. Board chairman Christopher Hart said Tuesday that “safety still is not institutionalized as a core value” at Metro. He says the problems that led to the 2015 fire “were allowed to develop and persist.”