From over 2000 miles away, I can see that the collision's primary cause was a transit employee's failure to lock the switchthrow in the mainline position.

I don't know how vandalism is reported in a case like this.

The secondary cause was that other transit employees didn't notice this error and advise the dispatcher, who would have notified the other operators and arranged to have the switchthrow locked, promptly.

The tertiary cause was the motorman's failure to notice the shining railheads turning left instead of staying in a straight line. Granted, the motorman has lots of distractions and several other things to do, but the motorman knows the location of every facing point switch.

The New Orleans report may be added to the manual at the streetcar lines around the world.

I've had direct experience with streetcar switchthrows. Once-upon-a-time, I shut a line down. The first motorman to approach was advised to call the dispatcher for repair service. The mechanic was called out, made the appropriate repairs, and service returned to normal.
Yes, we had an audience.