I asked my wife, a recently retired controller of the Tower/Tracon variety, if she had any comments after reading the preliminary stuff from the NTSB that was posted many pages ago.
Her third comment was that aircraft lining up with taxiways happens a whole lot more often than you hear about.
Her second comment, which directly addresses the post above, was that it is really difficult from the controller's position in the tower to identify exactly which stretch of pavement an aircraft is lined up with.
Her first comment, addresses workload--at the time this was all unfolding, just before the hour, the lone controller might very well have been cutting a fresh ATIS, in addition to everything else.
FWIW.