Free case study on good and evil on the rails

1) On the 12th of September 2 trains collided. The engineer of the train 111 was Robert M. Sanchez who from the early age was interested in this sphere. He did his best to fulfill his dream, he got hired to Metrolink, but on the 12th of September in 2008 he had his last commute route. There are some causes of the Metrolink accident. Sanchez was inattentive (before he had received several discipline letters for not following the rules). He wasn’t supposed to use his cell phone at work but he did (Sanchez texted to one teenager who was a rail fan). So he missed the yellow signal that warned him to stop at the next signal, but he didn’t mention it. So at the next light signal, that by the way was red, he didn’t stop either, but kept texting and moving forward. And according to rules, Sanchez was supposed to radio the dispatcher every time when he saw the lighted signal. So he was supposed to do it twice during that route, but he didn’t. He also didn’t follow the rules about required speed. So, all of that became the causes of the accident. And the main reason was Sanchez himself, of course, but the Metrolink Company caused the accident at some points too. So after the accident The National Transportation Safety Board did a detailed analysis. And they found out that Sanchez had lots of illness such as diabetes, an enlarged heart, obesity and he was HIV positive. And the blood and urine tested positive for marijuana use. The Metrolink Company wasn’t supposed to entrust so many life to a person like that.
2) The Metrolink Company was created to improve the situation in the world of trains and decrease the number of accidents. But this accident showed the different side of this company. The management was really deficient. Every new hired engineer has to get supervised and pass “ efficiency test». Sanchez supervisor was Connex. He had about 1, 000 such tests per month. Could you imagine how tired could he be doing all these almost 100 times per day? Of course, he could miss something or just let something go. That happened with Sanchez too. Well, the first mistake was about using the cellphone. Connex asked one of his co-workers to call Sanchez during the route. Sanchez had his cell phone in the operator’s compartment, however he wasn’t allowed. The Sanchez said that he had just forgotten about that. And Connex accepted the answer and let it go. Connex had never checked him again. Sanchez also got a mark “ above average” on calling signals and performance, but earlier he got a writing warning for neglecting to light a marker. The excuse for all of that was that Connex had a subjective faith in him. And soon that subjective faith turned into a huge accident. So if the Metrolink Company checked their stuff more detailed, this accident would never happened. Several days before this accident, Sanchez used his cell phone all the time during his routes (Verizon Wireless records proved everything). And once he let the teenager that was rail fan to get on the train. Nobody controlled him! To sum up, if the management and regulators were not so deficient, perhaps, nothing of that would happen.
3) Positive train control is a really great idea that unfortunately was very expensive. But the cost is justified. It is well-known fact that people make mistakes, and it doesn’t matter how good they are at what they do, they have to have a “ safety bag”, especially people who doing their job take responsibility for lots of people, so then the chances for tragic get decreased. And all the computers that record information about the train (speed, length, limits..) or wayside devices, wireless interface do help to avoid accidents and save lives. So how much would you pay for your life, for a life of your relative or dear person? It’s impossible to give a price, a life is priceless! So the government has to understand that money is just money, it could be earned, but life is given only once. That is very important to understand.
4) To put a label with a price on a person’s life is something immoral. Life of a person is priceless. But these words don’t mean anything to many of people, these words will make a human being to take responsibility for what he does only in rare cases. So the only way is to enforce him with the help of money. The Federal Rail Road Administration valued a life at $6 million. That is a very high price and at many points it is fair. The companies would understand that they have to take care of all the passengers which are on the board. They have to understand, that people ensure their lives in company’s hands, and in case of the mistake they have to pay for that a big amount of money. Perhaps, that would improve in some cases the management of the companies and the heads would constantly check on the crew, because they would know that if there is a mistake, they would pay. And what is also very important is to make understand the crew the whole responsibility they take and the importance of what they do how they do. So perhaps that is only for the best.
5) This program is one of the most expensive programs in America among shipping rates and consumer prices, but The Federal Railroad Administration grows and rail passengers are safer on the rails. But according to Exhibit 1 can be seen that that trains are really dangerous and during 1999-2009 something like 950 people died due to train operations, but most of them were caused by trespasser, highway crossing fatalities, rail worker or passenger fatalities. This system might save several people from that number, but could do nothing to keep alive the others. People get hit and killed by motor vehicles more often, then by trains and in trains. But in general, this program has more advantages then disadvantages. The workers know now that there is a low and some sanctions were taken, and let them understand the responsibility. Also some new technologies were implemented in order to help engineers in case they make a mistake. So it would be wrong to say that all money that was spent didn’t worth it, it did, but according to the results that is not the most efficient way to reduce risks of people getting hit or injured.
6) In order to regulate railroad safety, Congress created the agency that hired 900 employees which were supposed to help in the process of controlling and regulating railroad safety. Also the volunteers were used to help regulate and control railroad safety. There were some results, but something was always missed. The mandate was needed. So with the help of California’s two Democratic senators they gave a push for this case. They assured everybody that that was very important and it became a law. It includes lots of good things, for example, there is a part about a crew fatigue (workers are not supposed to work more than 24 hours). The certifying of conductors is also taken a place. According to the mandate they have to check the safety even of the antique locomotives that are used at railroad museums. They have to help victims or their families who happened to be in the accident. In mandate the improving safety measures at railroad-highway crossing were also mentioned. And what is important is that they embedded an annual program with $50 million grants to improve the safety on the rails. To sum up, it was a really good thing to do. Of course, to oppose legislation was kind of difficult, but that was only for the best.
7) Talking about video recording in locomotive cabs, it is a controversial question. On the one hand, it is an invasion of privacy. When a camera is pointing on a worker for the whole working day, it makes him feel uncomfortable, it gives a feeling that somebody doesn’t trust and wants to control everything. But from the other side, it is only for good. The new person gets hired, nobody knows him. And it is almost impossible to keep a controller the whole day long during several months near the new engineer or another worker in order to control. And the video recording is the best way to check his professional skills, his honesty, his devotion to work, to cut a long story short, just to find out if this person came to a company to work, if he realizes the whole responsibility he takes doing this job or if he came just to idle, have fun (like Sanchez did: he was crazy about trains and found that cool to drive one, he didn’t think seriously about work he was doing) and get money. The unions shouldn’t oppose it, because from the any situation there is always a peaceful way out could be found. For example, in the beginning of work (several months) the new workers have to be checked, because nobody knows what this new worker is up to and if he is good enough or not (the words cannot be trusted, because the person could say anything to get a job ad to write anything in the resume). And then the video recording has to stay there just to record everything, but has to be seen only in case if accident takes place or something goes wrong. This tape will be evidence in a disputable situation. The Metrolink accident wouldn’t happen if the video recording was there. They would find out that Sanchez was not serious enough about what was he doing (only fan stuff interested him). The video tape will show engineers that every step they take is a huge responsibility and that they don’t have a right for a mistake, it is not a game.