Page 41 - Train Control News Today

Theres a system called positive train control and they say that was not in place in this section of the track. its a default override and designed to warn the engineer when the train is going to rr fast. and the computers will kick in. congress has mandated that this be out fitted all trains. if it had been in place, this may very well not have happened. >> thank you very much. lets go in detail about some of the things brian todd was talking bute. and our investigator reporter is here drew grif...

Were told were moments away from todays national transportation safety board update. the deadly amtrak train derailment. the investigation clearly under way right now. once again joining us peter goelz, former managing director of the national transportation safety board, led numerous safety investigations and also joining us former transportation secretary during the obama administration, the former u.s. congressman ray la hood and our cnn senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin. this whole notion ...

Would have died that this would have been hurt because the tracks themselves could have made a difference the software the controls on the tracks. explain that to me. >> youre certainly not leading me on this because positive train control is something that the ntsb has long recognized will save lives. so weve long called for it. >> why hasnt it been done as far as you know? >> well i think that would best be explained by the railroads and the federal railroad administration. >> it certainly has...

Brandon bostian tells abc news his client doesnt remember how fast the train was going. >> he remembers coming into the curve. he remembers attempting to reduce speed thereafter he was knocked out, thrown around just like all the other passengers in that train. >> so he remembers deploying the emergency brake? >> he does not remember deploying the emergency brake. we know that it was in fact deployed. the last thing he recalls is coming to looking for his bag, getting his cell phone, turning it ...

Three or four seconds before the crash bringing it down to 102 miles per hour and there are only a number of reasons why a train is traveling that fast, a runaway train, a engineer not paying attention. the safety mechanisms in place elsewhere, it does not exist in this part of the track. >> that is right. and generically that is called positive train control, amtrak called it aceis. >> and is that on board the train. >> well it depends. ptc is what congress has mandated to be installed. it know...

Error? or was there equipment failure involved as well? thats what the ntsb says. and then theres a concern about what we do know which is even if human error is the reason behind the crash of train 188, it still didnt need to happen if safety systems were in place that should be yet arent. lets get to cnns government regulations correspondent rene marsh drilling down on these all-important questions. rene. >> reporter: well chris, the ntsb saying very plainly yesterday that they felt strongly t...

Zone that was only 50 miles an hour. >> what is the margin on a train and rails? is there any way to say there is always going to be a give like a race car driver know theres is a certain margin of danger that he is willing to accept. is there a certain margin you can go over the speed limit. say its supposed to be 50, the you had been going 70. but he went 106. it seems like that would be well beyond any kind of margin. >> yeah, train engineers are tested periodically and randomly. they dont ev...

If it seems like something is wrong, if the train seems to have not noticed a signal or if the train is speeding, right? if the train engineer doesnt respond to that signal, positive train control can override the human. override that locomotive engineer and automatically slow the train down or stop the train by remote control. this sort of system does require equipment upgrades to trains, it requires putting a lot of basic train infrastructure on the grid it requires some gps technology. but, y...

>> the concept is not new, but the implementation of what the current generation positive train control that is new. and its just now coming into maturation. >> what do you look for when you get on the ground first for this type of accident? to you first want to talk to the conductor, is that the first thing you want to do? >> certainly talking to the engineer who operates the train yeah, thats a high priority for us. we hope to be able to do that soon. but also we want to go and secure things l...

Believe we would get, is no more train-to-train collisions like weve seen before wouldnt see switching errors somebody doesnt realized theyre put off on to a different track, trains running up on work crews and not what we saw a couple days ago, which is a train coming too fast into a turn because the computer wouldnt let any of this happen, but this is important -- in terms of train collisions and derailments, this would stop 2% of them. 2%. an important 2% but many more go on and do nothing to...