CRASH PROBE FOCUSES ON FUNICULAR'S BRAKES.

Byline: Dominic Berbeo Staff Writer

A preliminary investigation of the crash on the historic Angels Flight funicular that killed one man and injured seven others showed that a cable came loose but did not snap, officials said Friday.

Inspectors also examined the antique train's braking system and said the counterbalanced cars, which move in tandem up and down Bunker Hill, may not have had a backup emergency track brake, standardized equipment on modern funiculars that could have halted the fatal slide.

``From what we've seen, there weren't any track brakes. But we still must verify that with the design engineers,'' said Hani Moussa, a rail expert with the California Public Utilities Commission, which is charged with regularly reviewing and inspecting Angels Flight.

Thursday's incident killed Leon Praport, 83, of Old Bridge, N.J., when the top car suddenly slammed into the lower car near the bottom of the 298-foot-high hill and shut down the popular tourist attraction indefinitely.

State and federal investigators said they still don't know precisely what caused the incident, but they are focusing on the train's braking and cable system.

``We do not know the precise cause of the accident at this time,'' said David Watson of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is heading the investigation. ``We will be working closely with the engineers that restored the funicular, and will be able to give a more precise answer then.''

Preliminary inspections showed that a cable came loose from a 6-foot spool - sending one car at the top of the track plummeting down to a collision with the second car - but the cable did not snap, officials said.

The train's operator applied a set of emergency brakes, Watson said, which stopped the lower car about 30 feet from the bottom of the tracks, but did not stop the top car from flying down toward the bottom.

Moussa said that while there is a disc brake and emergency disc brake that control the giant cable spool, it doesn't appear the cars were equipped with track brakes.

A funicular expert from Colorado, who is not involved in the investigation, said that standard design on modern funiculars includes a track brake located on the train car itself, which automatically grabs the tracks if the cable loses tension.

It was not clear whether the Angels Flight cars, restored in 1996, were equipped with such brakes, and if so, how they functioned in the incident.

``Track brakes are standard equipment on modern funiculars,'' said Charles Peterson, president of Tramway Engineering in Golden Springs, Colo. ``If the cable comes loose for any reason, they would have automatically stopped that car in a matter of inches.''

Peterson, who belongs to a national group of industry members called B-77, said there are no federal laws that require track brakes on funiculars, but they are standard equipment on modern-day cars and required in some states. California has no such requirement, he said.

``Given that they were restored in 1996,'' he said, ``I would be extremely surprised if they didn't have track brakes.''

While funiculars are common in Europe, there are only a handful in the United States, and accidents are extremely rare, he said.

Angels Flight operated from 1901 to 1969 and was restored in 1996 with $4.1 million in funding from the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency. It is now financed by the nonprofit Angel's Flight Foundation.

San Fernando-based Pueblo Contracting, which was the lead contractor in the restoration project, did not return phone calls Friday.

For 50 cents round trip, Angels Flight ferries passengers between Grand Central Market on Hill Street at the bottom and the California Plaza in about 60 seconds.

John H. Welborne, the foundation president, said Thursday marked the first serious incident since the 1996 reopening, during which an estimated 4 million passengers have boarded the train.

``Everything was checked and seemed OK on Thursday morning,'' he said. ``We've never had a situation where the cable has come off the spool.''

Safety inspections are conducted daily by foundation technicians trained by the engineers who designed the system, Welborne said, with PUC inspectors joining in on periodical inspections.

``Obviously, the rail will not be reopened until we are absolutely sure this sort of accident will not happen again,'' he said.

In addition to Praport, three other people were critically injured including his 73-year-old wife who remains in critical condition with head and back injuries at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

A 34-year-old man traveling in the lower car was listed in serious condition at County-USC. A woman taken there was treated and released.

Two other people were taken to Good Samaritan Hospital near downtown Los Angeles and two women were treated at Huntington Memorial in Pasadena.

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Curious individuals peer down at the damaged Angels Flight rail cars Friday in downtown Los Angeles, a day after a crash killed one and injured seven.

Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press