Could Train Technology Have Prevented Amtrak 188 Derailment?
PHILADELPHIA (WJZ)— Federal investigators are still trying to find out what caused Amtrak 188 to crash on Tuesday—stating in a Thursday press conference that train technology may have prevented the derailment.
Alex DeMetrick reports.
Built for speed, Amtrak passenger trains run with one engineer and a constant electronic companion.
"There is a dead man's switch in the train, and there was in this train," said Marc Rosen, Baltimore Attorney.
And it was designed to keep this accident in Philadelphia from happening. Every 28.8 seconds the engineer must activate the dead man's switch--it tells the train the engineer is alert and paying attention. It will even sound a loud alarm.
"The problem is that it happens so automatically that it can be ignored, almost have a highway hypnosis type of effect and it can be defeated," Rosen said.
Baltimore Attorney's Marc Rosen and Daniel Miller specialize in transportation cases. They follow safety technology, including the dead man's switch's replacement: Positive train control (PTC).
"It's designed to eliminate the chance for a train's colliding, for going off the rails," said Daniel Miller, Baltimore Attorney.
GPS technology transmits signals from thousands of track sensors to a central computer system. Metrolink in Los Angeles uses a simulator to train its engineers using PTC.
"If at any time I am unable to stop the train, PTC then takes command, stops the train to prevent any kind of incident or accident," R.T McCarthy, Metrolink Operations Director said.
Positive train control isn't cheap. It costs $50,000 per mile. $5-billion has been spent so far, covering 60-percent of the nation's tracks.
"They are doing their best to get it done. Unfortunately in this particular area it wasn't done in time and it could very easily more likely than not, prevented this incident from happening," Miller said.
Regulators and the rail industry had considered making improvements to the dead man's switch, but plans were shelved in favor of adopting PTC .