Page 478 - Human Error News Today

Pennsylvania senator bob casey is calling for action to fully implement a computerized system to prevent tragedies like the train derailment in philadelphia. its called positive train control, or ptc. its a sophisticated system of sensors that can help prevent collisions and stop trains from going through red signals if the operator is for example distracted. heres senator casey on "morning joe." >> i do think, though, when the ntsb says specifically or definitively that the so-called positive t...

Crash and later released from the hospital. the ntsb has not yet interviewed the engineer. we now have some idea what happened, we still dont know why. joining me now, nbc news correspondent tom costello. tom, the engineer has been identified, what do we know about him? >> 32 years old, hes been an engineer for five years with amtrak, and we would expect that if this investigation is going down two different tracks he is -- he could potentially be facing serious questions from the ntsb but also ...

Error, yet, yesterday in washington, d.c., a number of democrats used this -- at a time when they were still pulling bodies out of the train -- usual they wait rk. they have the decency to wait until the dead are removed. the democrats were accusing the republicans -- you know, theyre so cheap with the money. had they spent more on infrastructure for amtrak, people would not be dead. thats essentially their argument. well, weve got two points of view. steve israel who says the republicans should...

Of the incident or anything unusual. the next thing he recalls is being thrown around coming to finding his bag, getting his cell phone and dialing 911. >> reporter: all right. again, over my shoulder you can see that this is the track where this all happened. investigators from the very beginning, they suspected speed simply because of the angles and the way the wreckage was left on the tracks. also, the extent of the damage. still, there are so many other questions. we know this train was goin...

>> well i think it is naive because we know this has happened before. we have other train crashes where human error has cost human lives. and thats the whole point of positive train control. we want to take some of the human error or all of the human error eventually if we could ever get to that point. but we want to take the human failure out of the system to save the passengers save the train and save the rail system. and, you know -- im not just saying amtrak railroad lines across the country...

System. if joe boardman and amtrak tell mess theyll beat the deadline of december then im confident that they will. >> let me ask you, because when you say positive train control, i spent half my morning reading about this. for people watching they may have no idea what that is. so let me have you just explain that what that is and why in such a busy area, you know this northeastern corridor, why it was absent on this particular curve. >> well positive train control in its simplest form override...

University. professor, welcome. >> thank you. >> so let me just begin with that response from the attorney from this conductor. if hes saying he had no reck recollection but doctors are saying over time his memory will return what do you make of that response and what kinds of questions will he be asked once his memory comes back? >> you know its really critical to see if it was human error, human misjudgment that caused this. it does appear that way. we dont know of course. if thats the case th...

No idea what caused this accident. and to use that as a means of supporting the last amendment, support it if you want to, but dont use this tragedy in that way. it was beneath you. >> you know y understand people are emotional, but for the most part, congressman israel has been on our show a few times. i thought it was way out of bounds not to wait. that argument would be just as effective next week. basically just find out why that censors arent in all 70,000 miles of track. you could do that ...

Speed. investigators will determine if it was human error or maybe a mechanical problem. cnns jason carol reports from philadelphia. >> reporter: the mangled wreckage strewn on the tracks, the data recorder recovered from the first car has already revealed the train was traveling at least twice as fast as it should have been. 106 miles per hour. as it entered the corner where it derailed late tuesday. just moments before the derailment, the train was placed into engineer induced braking and this...

And then they have an idea that the engineer jammed on the brakes which tells you he knew he was going to fast and tried to avert disaster. >> with what we know, it is hard not to think that human error is playing some role here. now i suppose its possible there is some mechanical set of events that would cause a train to sort of speed out of control. >> yeah. >> but from what we know, certainly things seem to be pointing in that direction. the other thing i would say before you get to that bend...