On the morning of March 7, 1990, at 8:21 AM, a SEPTA Market-Frankford line train derailed and crashed at a crossover in the subway tunnel going west just after a leaving the underground 30th Street station. A traction motor on the third car of the six-car train was being dragged along the ground, between the tracks, and damaged the switch points, causing the rear truck of the fourth car to take the diverging route and derail, throwing the car sideways into the steel columns in the subway tunnel. There were four fatalities and 158 injuries.

According to the NTSB report, SEPTA could have avoided the accident had they "properly inspected the motor mount and safety connection on the No. 2 traction motor" during its regularly scheduled inspections. According to SEPTA's records, there were three inspections (1/4/90, 2/10/90, and 3/2/90) before the crash, but the NTSB says that for each one, the "possibility exists that the inspection was never peformed." The investigation exposed many issues with SEPTA's procedure for inspections and the quality of maintenance, including the low priority for maintenance because of the need to make cars available for peak service, the lack of formal training on maintenance procedures, and the lack of supervisor oversight and inspection of the work performed.

The NTSB report says, "Postaccident testing for 88 days has shown that it would take a great deal of time for the horizontal safety rod to completely wear through the motor support brackets. If any of these inspections had been thoroughly and conscientiously performed, the condition of the motor support bolt brackets would have been detected and this accident prevented."

These Market-Frankford "M-3" cars were built by the Budd Car Company and delivered in 1961. The economic life of these cars is typically 30 years with proper maintenance, and these cars were approaching the end of the economic life. However, they continued to serve until about 1999, when the new AdTranz "M-4" cars were delivered, and there were no further major incidents with those Budd cars.

The NTSB report says that Lou Gambaccini had become general manager about 1.5 years before the crash, and had already started to reform SEPTA management and the organization when the crash took place. Between 1984 and 1989, SEPTA went through several general managers, and the organizational chaos that likely resulted could have been a factor in the poor maintenance procedures.

The NTSB report also revealed other issues at SEPTA that were not factors in the crash, but which were important on their own, including problems with SEPTA's drug testing program at the time, and problems with the emergency response in the aftermath of the crash due to poor communications. The NTSB report includes recommmendations for providing a reliable emergency public address system, providing crews with portable radios, and improving coordination between the Philadephia Fire Department and SEPTA in the event of an emergency evacuation of in a subway.

Sources: NTSB report number RAR-91-01, letter R91-1-8.

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