Many people have hear of the train crash which occurred about 10 miles out from its destination at Manhattan's Grand Central Station, killing 4 and injuring 67. It recently came out in an interview today that the engineer had been "in a dazed" at the time of and leading up to the derailment. Even though the train has a system called "the dead man's pedal" which stops the train should the engineer become incapacitated and no longer be able to guide the train (ex passing out and hands coming off the steering). However, in the case of Rockefeller, the engineer in this incident, since he was more in a "twilight" sleep he was still able to run the train just not effectively. He was going around the curve at 82 mph (way beyond the speed limit), but the limited technology (which dates back to WWII) does not have an indicator that could have told him how fast he was going.
I believe trains should have a co-engineer, similar the a co-pilot on an airplane. Too many people's lives are at risk with too heavy of machinery to rely on the attentiveness of one person. A co-engineer could easily have taken over for Rockefeller as he grew tired. It is a shame people had to be injured and lose their lives for one man's honest mistake. And what a terrible burden he will have to carry with him.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/03/us/new-york-train-crash/index.html?c=homepage-t&page=1
There is also a chance that this "daze" could have been caused from being drunk, on drugs or medicine, or simply just could have been because he was tired. Whatever it was, he should have been more aware of the importance of transporting many lives under his responsibility. I think having a co-engineer is a great idea.
ReplyDeletewell, if the technology is so outdated, we could fix that real quick too. not saying that that is the major excuse, because he shouldn't have been in a daze... people's lives are in his hands.
ReplyDeleteI hope that they update the technology of the train soon so accidents like this one won't happen again. Also I hope that Rockefeller doesn't get arrested or anything like that but he should be reprimanded in some way.
ReplyDeleteThe driver should be punished in some way but I also wonder way the train doesn't have the technology to control speeds. I am more disappointed at the state for not updating the trains than the driver
ReplyDeleteThe trains definitely need to be updated. It will be interesting to see what really affected the driver. Was he just sleepy, or was he under the influence of something like drugs or alcohol? It's sad that those people were killed because of his negligence.
ReplyDeleteIf you read other reports it says that the driver was not under the influence of alcohol and his drug tests came back negative. The guy was probably tired. Or maybe he was in a daze from the accident himself. Either way I really hope he isn't the target of attack because it is extremely absurd that that big ass train only has one guy in the engineer room that holds everyone's lives at stake.
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