Gongol.com Archives: March 2025
March 20, 2025
One of America's best public institutions is the National Transportation Safety Board. Its newly-issued interim report on the ship collision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge is a valuable example why. The report directly and plainly states that 68 other bridges are at elevated risk of a similar disaster, and points to exactly what ought to be done without a moment's delay to protect the people who use those bridges. ■ Bad events will happen from time to time, but they become tragic if we ignore the lessons we should have learned. The NTSB does just that. It's public service of the highest form, channeling technical expertise into the job of finding the root causes of incidents and accidents, then formulating clear advice to be followed so the bad events don't reoccur. ■ NTSB reports are written carefully, documenting information that needs to be digested not just by professionals, but also by interested non-professionals. This is important, because many public policies either need to be shepherded through the lawmaking process by non-professionals or otherwise be supported by them. Good policy isn't necessarily self-sustaining; it needs good advice and an audience capable of acting on what it's told. ■ The report on the Key Bridge collision lays out in clear language who needs to take action in response to the incident, and there are a lot of parties on that roster. Names are named, from the Federal Highway Administration to the Harris County Toll Road Authority. This is the way competent government is carried out.
