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Amtrak to begin installation of inward-facing locomotive cameras
I swear I’ve heard of folks calling for this action for years, however once again it takes bloodshed to implement them. BTW I think PTC will have problems and bugs for years. One thing I always wondered, why don’t railroads have a trip arm at the red signals to dump the E brake like transit agencies have, in case of overshooting of red signals?
Typical Gov’t action, assume you’ll do wrong.
All this will do is document a problem. It won’t prevent anything.
If one were to take this to its logical conclusion the government would also mandate inward facing cameras for over the road trucks. Correct?
Who wants to spend their every working hour with a camera on them? And it will prevent almost nothing.
Though they could help in accident investigations, I would find this VERY distracting if I were an engineer. The only accidents they will prevent are those caused by willful violations, such as cell phone usage.
Yeah, as if a camera is going to prevent me from nodding off in exhaustion.
A two man crew should be mandatory and more than likely could have prevented the tragedy. Again, another example of bureaucratic backwards thinking. Instead of being proactive we have something that could only serve as a reactive device. Would anyone feel comfortable in today’s modern passenger jet with a one man crew? When you have what is supposed to pass as “high speed service” it just makes common sense to have a second person in that cab as is the case on freight and Amtrak trains running on private carriers. The other question is why, in the first place, on an alleged high speed service was there a restrictive 50 mph curve in the first place?
@ Brett: Even if they had a trip arm there wasn’t a red signal prior to that 50 mph curve. For that matter there wasn’t even an ATS system installed that might have helped to prevent the accident. Again, the big word is WHY?
They should put in facing camera in the politicians offices so we can see what they do on their jobs
How idiotic is this now?
Amtrak is forced to cut back on food service & other thing. And then, they have to throw the money away for a complete nonsence!
Is there no one in that company who would say stop?
Just more “feel good” action by people who know nothing. They can pat themselves on the back and say, “look what I did! Train travel is safer because of me.” Then they move one without soving the problem, but believing that they did. How about cameras in the politicians offices so we can see them as they take their payoffs from lobbyists?
Since they already have inward facing cameras on some fixed-route buses and now passenger trains, are they also going to require them for airline pilots and ship captains?
Cell phone used has NEVER caused an accident.
Bill, That’s not quite true ! You probably forgot, but a few years back an engineer of a Metro-link commuter train in California collided head-on with a UP freight and they believe he ran a red signal because he was using his cell-phone at the time. Unfortunately, people were killed and he was among them.