|
EDITORIAL: Technology on the rails
Jul 03, 2009 (Boston Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Yesterday the MBTA announced it would test some new collision-avoidance technology on a two-mile-long Green Line branch in the wake of two crashes in the past year.
After the second crash last May the powerful Carmen's Union demanded a switch to a computerized collision-avoidance system. Never mind that the crash -- estimated to cost some $9 million in damaged equipment plus the inevitable legal settlements from at least some of the 50 injured passengers -- was attributed to the driver who was busy texting his girlfriend at the time.
Now technology is a beautiful thing -- even for a system that is up to its eyeballs in debt. But technology has its limits, especially on the Green Line, a system which does not necessarily lend itself to automated stops and starts.
The irony here, of course, is that last month Washington, D.C.'s automated Metro system suffered a devastating crash that killed nine people, including a heroic driver whose use of a manual emergency brake likely saved dozens more lives.
In the wake of that crash, the union representing Washington Metro's workers demanded that the system's drivers be allowed to operate trains manually rather than using the automated system -- a system in use since 1976 that somehow failed to prevent the crash.
Metro's management immediately required that all trains be operated in manual mode until further notice. That order is still in effect.
The system being tested here, according to T officials, uses radio waves and a beeping system to alert drivers of a train ahead. If the driver doesn't respond in time, the automated system is supposed to kick in.
D.C. provides a timely reminder that no system is perfect, no system is failsafe. For all the technological advances, there's still no substitute for a responsible, well-trained human being.
To see more of the Boston Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.bostonherald.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Boston Herald Distributed by
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Back To it.tmcnet.com's Homepage ]
|