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Amtrak Installing Cameras To Watch Train Engineers
An anonymous reader writes: In the aftermath of the derailment of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia a couple weeks ago, the company has caved to demands that it install video cameras to monitor and record the actions of the engineers driving their trains. The National Transportation Safety Board has been recommending such cameras for the past five years. Amtrak CEO Joe Boardman says the cameras will improve train safety, though the engineers' union disagrees. In 2013, the union's president said, "Installation of cameras will provide the public nothing more than a false sense of security. More than a century of research establishes that monitoring workers actually reduces the ability to perform complex tasks, such as operating a train, because of the distractive effect."
Next up, cams in the cubicles of software and hardware engineers to see which one is writing the most buggy code?
"Google Train"
Maybe install the friggin speed arrestors that should have been in that particular train back in 2012. I'd rather KNOW that the passengers are safe, instead of being able to watch the engineer fall asleep at the switch after the fact.
I can understand the engineer's union attitude towards this. Would YOU want a camera on you all day?
Back when I worked in a shop I DID have a camera on me all day and that was just for something as trivial as shoplifting, never mind having responsibility for a few hundred tons of freight/passengers barrelling down the lines upwards of 60 mph. If I can put up with it for less pay then perhaps the drivers should just suck it up and deal with it like the rest of us do.
When lives are at stake and drivers resist this sort of thing, which is there to understand why accidents happen not for some voyeur to watch them pick their noses, kvetching just makes one think the stereotypes surrounding the big, old unions have more than a grain of truth to them.
Dunno - it's pretty hard to account for why the dude was doing 100+ mph on a 50mph curve.
Oh, I could probably imagine a few scenarios. Probably the most likely being that dispatch told him to make up some time.
Ultimately, the engineer is responsible for the safety of the passengers, but if he chose to obey the speed limit when he was told to get there faster, the fact that he saved all those people will be of little consolation when he gets fired and can't get hired on anywhere else because 1) there isn't anyone else and 2) he disobeyed a direct order from dispatch.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Well, speaking of Amtrak employee accountability, I have a story about that. A few years ago my family took a train ride across the country. When we changed trains in Chicago I noticed that the reading light in my sleeping compartment was stuck on, which of course was bad if I wanted to actually sleep. I found the friendly and helpful attendant and reported it, and her reaction was like watching a balloon deflate.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"If we report damage they take it out of our wages," she said.
"What! What do you mean take it out of your wages?" I asked.
"If a car is damaged under my watch I have to pay for it," she said.
"Well," I said, taking out my swiss army knife, "I guess there's nothing to see here."
I have to say that I've never encountered such a nice, enthusiastic, friendly group of people with such an abysmally low morale as the crew of a cross-country train. With passengers they're great, but all through the trip I'd see two or three congregated having low muttered conversations. It didn't take me long to figure out they were talking about management. And while the experience was wonderful, the equipment was in horrible shape. It was like traveling in a third world country.
With management that bad, more data doesn't equal more accountability and better performance. It means scapegoating.
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