Posted on 12/22/2017 9:41:36 AM PST by MAGA2017
Machines and structures fail sometimes, but the human factor is at the heart of dangers we face time after time, from global warming to traffic collisions. People make mistakes.
The human factor likely played a role in Mondays fatal Amtrak train derailment near Olympia. There will be a long investigation, but early indications are that the rails and the train functioned as they are supposed to, which leaves questions about the people at the controls.
When something goes wrong, the fault can be with the people who operate equipment, the people who design systems, the people who decide how much to spend on a project and how fast to move, or some combination.
Big systems are full of opportunities for human error, which becomes a larger problem with large public works, on which people are often not willing to spend sufficient time and money.
Most developed countries have those systems in place, but the U.S. rail system has long been neglected. Many other economically strong countries have high-speed rail systems with trains that travel 200 mph, and their systems are far safer.
We dont have that. We dont have a lot of things that we could easily have.
Many Americans are too cheap to pay for the kind of transportation system that other places take for granted, or for other public benefits that might raise their taxes without direct benefit to themselves. Shortsightedness is a human failing that Americans have more than our share of.
Congress, for instance, just overhauled taxes in a way that will raise the national debt and force further cuts in government that will hurt most Americans, particularly the young ones wholl have to deal with the longterm consequences.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
The two are not related. Except in the mind of an insane liberal.
Looks to me like the crash was due to having to meet an unrealistic schedule.
I say this because this has been the fate of American truckers driving way too fast to keep up with schedules that cause them to drive without regard to the human driver.
Because businesses have been struggling to survive due to all the regulations on them, and taxes.
...And can someone tell me why after about 75 years of communist rule, Russia and the East Bloc were cesspools...
Same thing with US cities under decades of Democrat rule.
Oh hell why not, the nation elected Obama twice
It was proven to be a mistake so yeah.
Whatta load of tripe.
Jus fIXIN the Obama mistake you big dumby black Toby reporter! Duh.
Most developed countries have those systems in place, but the U.S. rail system has long been neglected. Many other economically strong countries have high-speed rail systems with trains that travel 200 mph, and their systems are far safer.
...
How is it privately run airlines have these safety systems but government run trains don’t?
Best comment on the article:
bjornost
one tracked mind... Its an 80 mph “progressive” mind on a 30 mph leftward bound journey to collective ruin...
Stupid argument. The train crash happened on a government funded train, using government funded tracks and government funded engineer, paid for with the current government tax system and it failed.
If the editors of the Seattle Times wished to voluntarily pay more taxes, there’s nothing stopping them.
I think Jerry Large’s entire paycheck should be confiscated by the government and redistributed by politicians for the good of the children.
There’s a high speed rail line from DC to Boston.
I had to go up that way for work a couple weeks ago. The Amtrak train took about 20 minutes less time than driving and cost four times the flight cost.
I had lots of gear so I drove.
It's not about them paying higher taxes. It's about using government force to get others to pay higher taxes, as an affirmation of their belief system.
NTSB: Amtrak train was going 78 mph at impact; crew not using electronic devices
12/22/2017, 8:57:32 AM · by outpostinmass2 · 37 replies
KOMONEWS ^
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An initial review of the data recorders and cameras on board the Amtrak train that derailed in DuPont on Monday suggests the train was going 78 mph in the moments before impact — nearly 50 miles over the speed limit at that location — and that the crew realized the speed was too high moments before, the NTSB announced Friday. Among the preliminary review, investigators concluded that the crew was not observed to be using any electronic devices before the crash, and that six seconds before impact, the engineer made a comment about going too fast.
http://freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=3616062%2C1
It’s the taxpayers’ fault the idiot engineer was going almost three times over the speed limit. Got it!
“High speed rail” is not about needed and necessary infrastructure. Maintenance and improvement of existing infrastructure already invested in previously should have a much bigger priority. Rail - moving stuff in fixed transportation corridors with dedicated land all along the way, and less efficient per pound than air transport is more than a hundred years older technology than air transport. And “high speed” rail is REALLY about convincing more people to live in concentrated population areas where “public services” are a larger “entitlement” necessity as such concentrations are unsupportable without them. THAT is the real motivations for them.
Also many countries do not have better safety records than the US. Yes, they may have some good high speed lines. But the issue of safety has to do with spending money on Safety Engineers, hazard analysis, and risk management. We know about these things but too often project managers leave them under funded. I propose that this is what the Cascade Train system is going to be found guilty of. (Or they had these people on the team and flat out ignored their recommendations.)
Positive Train control is one of the items that Safety Engineers would have supported and tried to have implemented but here again we have the project manager who has the final say.
This winning thing is becoming exhausting. I need to hit the gym again. :)
BTW, I lived in Seattle for 46 years, moving to rural KY six years ago. The attitude in this article epitomizes one of the reasons I left that leftist cesspool. Time has only proven it was one of the smartest moves I ever made.
"...it would help if train engineers knew their routes..."
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