>>>The problem with trains is you don’t have to steer.
Steering helps keep you awake in a road vehicle.
This is not a new problem.<<<
We should be able to trust the ridiculously overpaid union members to stay awake.
But since we can’t, they ought to put some sort of system in where the enigneer is required to push some sort of button or combination of numbers every 30 seconds or so, just to prove he is awake and at the controls, or an extremely loud alarm goes off, while a video of him sleeping is recorded, to be used at his termination hearing.
Apparently the good people of New York did not see fit to install the simple systems that would prevent such disasters.
In most modern locomotives, an "alerter" is used. This system, based on vigilance control works by alerting the engineer with a buzz or bell every few minutes or so. If the engineer does not push a button on the driver's console, the "alerter" system will automatically put the train into a penalty brake application (a full service application). To acknowledge the alert and thus prevent penalty brake application, the engineer reaches down to press the button and reset the system. Most major railroads in the United States and abroad use this system both in their freight and passenger operations. Older locomotives produced before 1995 do not carry this feature, but given the modular nature of the system it is not uncommon to find them retrofitted.