Anyone else see the show on PBS “Nova” “Why Trains Crash”?
There was information about the Chatsworth, CA UP-Metro collision and the Philadelphia, PA Amtrak derailment that I had not picked up from discussions here. With respect to the Amtrak accident resulting from excessive speed into a curve, and whereas the Amtrak train was not hit by a rock, a SEPTA train had been hit by a rock that had injured its driver. The claim was that the Amtrak driver was distracted by listening to the radio conversations regarding the rock-throwing incident.
Someone might weigh in with “not his job” for the Amtrak driver to be listening in, but if someone is throwing rocks at trains that injures train drivers, it is in my view very much appropriate for the Amtrak driver to know what is going on, provided, however, that they mind their own signals and speed restrictions.
The Chatsworth accident, according to the program, was very much blamed on the Metro driver, who was texting from a cell phone while driving, and texting on something that was very much not in his job description (allegedly offering cab rides to interested parties). That Chatsworth accident is described as the impetus for Congress to pass the PTC mandate, and the industry foot-dragging in implementing PTC (because of “concern regarding standards”) was blamed by the TV show for the Phily accident.
Am I the only person bothered by PBS’ version of this? First of all, just like the self-driving automobile that is supposed to prevent car accidents, how do we know the accidents won’t result from failure of the PTC itself. Technology is not a silver bullet that solves all problems, and I thought that was pretty disingenous of PBS Nova to blame corporate foot dragging when PTC has potential shortcomings.
The other thing is that railroads are a very minor player in passenger transportation whereas they are major play