Page 480 - Human Error News Today

Metro link engine pushed inside of the passenger car. it must have been a very traumatic crash. >> friends and relatives rushed to local hospitals. some learning their loved ones were lost. >> one of my uncles is really injured. >> theres no word yet how or why this happened except to note the obvious. there is only one track here and horribly both trains were on it. >> both trains were on the one track. what happened in that metro link commuter train crash in l.a. in 2008, what happened there w...

That led to some real wake-up calls. we had an engineer who was texting. he ordered lunch on his cell phone not long before the accident. it was an indication that you can set these systems up perfectly, but if the crew isnt -- their head isnt there, so that led to a whole set of rules about using devices while youre at the front of a train. and of course that triggered the whole positive train control discussion too. but this is a general trend in transportation carriers are worried about. one ...

Train last night. >> lets find out. im sure you will update us. once you know well know. the train was traveling, we are told by the ntsb 106 miles per hour going into the curve and shouldnt have been going faster than 50 miles per hour. was this a human error, a mechanical error? what are you hearing? >> i dont know that ntsb made that decision. clearly, it was reckless in terms of driving by the engineer. theres no way in the world he should have been going that fast into the curve. i mean mos...

Need for infrastructure improvements. is that grounds to sue? >> here is the first thing you have to answer in this tragic incident. you have to determine whether its the result of human error? is it the result of the condition of the train? the failure, for example the throttle application, or something wrong with the train track itself? once you determine that you can figure out who you are going after. for example, this is a very highly traveled corridor. the busiest in the country for amtrak...

Hospitals. live look at the wreckage. the national transportation safety board is on the scene. they have recovered the black box, that date ata recovery unit from the engine which will tell how fast the train was going. was there a mechanical problem with the train? the track? was a human error at fault? this is the nations busiest rail corridor and is going to be shut down for some time. new jersey transit is honoring amtrak tickets for those who want to travel between philadelphia and new yor...

I dont think that the rail lines are objecting to the additional safety measures its just that theres, oh, i think theres about 880,000 miles of track in the united states. of course this system is certainly much -- has much more use than most of the rest of country, but it takes a long time to buy all this equipment and get installed. the deadline was this year but it simply wasnt possible for all the track and all the trains to have it. so thats only one of the many systems and that may not ha...

We want to get the facts before we start making judgments. >> is there some sort of mechanical problem that could have caused that train to be going that fast into that curve as opposed to a human error? >> wolf we are here looking at everything. we are going to look at the operation of the train, the mechanical condition of the train itself we are going to do a brake check. we are going to find out how the operation of the train was. we are going to look at the human factors, the performance ar...

Lets not wait until we have another tragedy to think about the consequences of our transportation system and what it means to the nation or to see until the next time that lives are lost. i think we can do much better mr. president, and i have faith that hopefully this will be a crystallizing moment for us on this critical issue. >> that was new jersey senator bob menendez speaking moments ago about the impact of the train derailment. the senators son was on the train right behind the one that d...

America and what congress can do to help not cutting funding like we saw today? >> the first thing i want to reiterate based on what secretary carter said this is a tragedy and it is a painful day to realize that weve lost life on passenger rail in southeastern pennsylvania. thousands of my constituents use that rail liner single day. and in terms of the funding, whether this is a human error or whether it was an aging infrastructure problem, its clear we need to reinvest in our passenger rail s...

Joining me now is university of north dakota mechanical engineering professor george bible and author of "train wreck: the forensics of rail disasters." and back with us former ntsb board member kitty higgins. professor bible, let me go to you. what questions do you have tonight for investigators? >> well they seem to be zeroing in on speed. and thats gross human error. derailments are almost always equipment failure. about the only way you can derail a train with human error is too fast on a cu...