NTSB has long coveted the rule-making authority of the Federal agencies it so often criticizes. NTSB can issue findings and suggestions, but it cannot enforce anything, nor create new rules. And that, IMPO, is a GOOD thing, as they so often go off the deep end in their recomendations.

Reading between the lines in this one, they focus on the truck's brake slack adjusters, but then they pretty much admit that they don't know for certain whether the brakes were all properly adjusted or not, because the tow truck operators, in order to move the wreck out of the way, have to "back off" the slacks to release the brakes so the darn thing can be moved.

Another thing that always bothered me was that, like FRA, the NTSB used to have a lot of investigators that were rails that couldn't cut it, or union reps with their own agendas. I don't think it's that way anymore, but go back to some of their investigations 20 or 30 years ago and it becomes clear they didn't always know what they talking about, or went way out of their way to whitewash the individuals involved in favor of hammering the employers. And the regulatory agencies, of course.