[tallyhoe]

I thought trains had the dead mans switch? Where as as soon as the Engineer leaves his seat the breaks are set and the throttle can not be advanced! Or that if the Engineer dies, passes out while at the helm the Engine automatically decreases the throttle and come to a stop!!!

[cardinal4]

Yep. There has to be an operator onboard for there to be operator error..!

[UCANSEE2]

Where as as soon as the Engineer leaves his seat the breaks are set and the throttle can not be advanced! Or that if the Engineer dies, passes out while at the helm the Engine automatically decreases the throttle and come to a stop!!!

Sure, but the article says that the train was missing it's conductor. Maybe the engineer fell asleep in his seat. ????

[Squawk 8888]

Most subway trains don't have a deadman switch because they automatically stop if they pass a red light. According to the article that system had to be overridden because the signals were malfunctioning.

The incident began when the operator was unable to start the train Thursday morning due to a signal issue, Pollack said. The operator was cleared by the MBTA Operations Control Center to put the train into emergency bypass mode.