PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A SEPTA driver who has been blamed for several collisions now has another black mark on his record. Federal investigators say he was distracted just before the Norristown High Speed Line train he was operating crashed last May.
Two passengers were seriously hurt when the light rail car rammed into the bumper at the end of the track in Norristown. Ten other people suffered minor injuries.
The National Transportation Safety Board, in a recent report, said the operator “became disengaged from his duties for unknown reasons and failed to apply the vehicle’s brakes.”
A Norristown High Speed Line train crashed into a bumper at the end of the tracks on May 11, 2025. Dan Miller/KYW Newsradio
The NTSB said the collision could have been prevented by a train control system that eliminates a single point of failure, like driver distraction.
Since the crash, the feds said SEPTA has made changes to improve the emergency response.
The train driver’s status with SEPTA is unclear. The NTSB report says he was involved in three “preventable” collisions as a bus and trolley operator, and three more bus collisions for which he was “solely responsible.” He also violated a stop signal while driving a train, the report says.
The driver was warned, then suspended, then let go — and then rehired, “with the understanding that further infractions would result in permanent dismissal,” the report says.
The full report can be found below. (The Norristown High-Speed Line is now called the M.)
