How to prevent the next crash?

Could better technology have prevent the Metrolink crash? Dan Weikel and Steve Hymon examined this issue, and experts told them the answer is "yes." But Metrolink officials are more skeptical:

Friday's disastrous collision that took the lives of at least 25 people could have been prevented if Metrolink and the region's freight railroads had installed sophisticated warning and control devices, according to safety experts who have been calling for such improvements for decades. The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates crashes and recommends ways to avoid them, began calling for the technology 30 years ago, after a train wreck in Louisiana. The safety board has repeatedly advocated the technology for high-risk corridors where freight and passenger trains operate side by side. Southern California has more freight trains and commuter trains sharing tracks than any other place in the United States. But railroads and commuter lines here have not installed the technology, which is in use in parts of the Northeast and routes between Chicago and Detroit.

More on the NTSB's investigation into the crash from the New York Times: "Whatever Metrolink’s initial assertion about the cause of the deadly train crash Friday in Los Angeles, there is still room for a thorough and revealing investigation, safety experts said."

-Shelby Grad

Comments

[b cole]

My father worked on the UP in a supervisor position. I remember him sharing
with me many times that he would walk up to the engine and find the engineer sleeping. I won't ride the train.

[Darrel Woodward]

The bottom line is ,despite all of the technology and stuff like that,is still thefact that someonehad to go by a red signal,to be in that strech of single track,the signaling systems are made that way.I get a laugh at all of the banterby all of these self appointed experts,most of the people that talk about the subject don't have the smallest idea of how a railroad singaling system works.

[Steph]

"We want to be honest in our appraisal," Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell somberly told reporters at the scene.

...let's hold our public agencies to this promise."HUMAN ERROR" is easy scapegoat for systems flaws and deficient organizational oversight. Murphy's Law factors at work too: Increased ridership with increased gas prices, current trackage expansion plans and transitions of operations, joint scheduling of Amtrak/Metrolink/Freight with Freight intensifying as pre-holiday goods from China go to Walmarts.

Veolia personnel policies and safety compliance oversight are in question. A fast-growing international corporation with limitless marketing resources, but can Veolia deliver the goods? Examine also the dynamic of railroad companies and those entrusted with operating safely our passenger rail traffic. It's all bottom line! Fed oversight in past 6-8 yrs have been deficient on many fronts.

[Rob McMillin]

Railroad signaling in a few words for those who don't know:

Red = stop.
Not red = go!

Anybody else see the problem here?

And how long has it been that the railroads have had an instructive example of possible improvements?