NTSB Advisory
National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594
August 23, 2000

NTSB CHAIRMAN, RSPA ADMINISTRATOR TO MEET PRESS AT CARLSBAD PIPELINE ACCIDENT SITE

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall and Research and Special Programs Administration Administrator Kelley Coyner will meet the news media at the site of last weekend's pipeline rupture near Carlsbad, New Mexico.

Date: Thursday, August 24
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Accident Site. From Carlsbad, U.S. 285 South, then east on Whitehorn Road (County Road 725). Accident site is at Pecos River crossing.

The explosion and fire of the El Paso natural gas pipeline near Carlsbad is the deadliest pipeline accident in the continental United States in almost 25 years, taking the lives of 11 people. Chairman Hall and Administrator Coyner will tour the site before meeting with the news media. They also intend to meet with El Paso Natural Gas Company officials and visit the pipeline company's control center in El Paso.

Jim Hall is the Chairman of the NTSB, an independent federal agency charged with investigating transportation accidents in all modes of transportation. NTSB is not part of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Kelley Coyner heads the federal DOT agency that has regulatory responsibility over the safety of the transportation of hazardous materials in the United States, including the nation's pipeline system.

Details about the NTSB's Office of Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety, and Chairman's Hall biographical information may be obtained on the Safety Board's web site at www.ntsb.gov.

Media Contact: Keith Holloway, NTSB (505) 234-7305