Coverage in the DC market for the Metro Train Accident centered around casualty count and references to the next NTSB briefing. Anchors supplied little history or background so the viewer would know there was a litany of NTSB recommendations from past incidents. Maybe there are less Reporters with experience covering these past events, but TV stations can define themselves in today’s web news environment by building out stories with more investigative/accountability approach right away.
Good Morning America’s Chris Cuomo, for example, went right after the old rail car safety issue in this testy account the morning after. They followed up the next day with a good status check on current possible causes. The Washington Post had excellent coverage online on the computer company that built the collision avoidance system software for Metro.
Why not do stories right way that examine how things normally run on a large mass transit system like Metro? A company such as Alstom Signaling probably has some in house animation or industrial video on how its supposed to work. Then layer in the findings as they become available. This overall story should be relevant to all cities that have trains whether AMTRAK or more commuter.