Zoned Out

We've ridden Metro North commuter trains most of our lives, in and out of Fairfield and Westchester Counties and Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. Except for the occasional weather delay or cancellation, we've always gotten to our destination. Last Sunday's derailment of the 5:04 AM southbound Hudson Line train from Poughkeepsie was tragic and a reminder that accidents do happen, on land, air and sea.

The engineer's lawyer says he "zoned out" as the train entered a sharp turn at 82 miles per hour at the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx, and failed to slow the train to the usual 30 miles per hour speed. A train union representative told a CNN reporter the engineer "was nodding off and caught himself too late."  This so-called "twilight" state suggests the engineer's hands were probably still on the controls, hence the "dead man" technologies in place to stop a train when an engineer becomes incapacitated didn't activate.

State and local politicians are falling over themselves pointing fingers, appointing task forces and ordering investigations. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (that runs Metro North) and the National Transportation Safety Board are making their cases for already partially implemented investments in Positive Train Control (PTC) technology, which combines GPS, wireless radio and computers to monitor trains and stop them from colliding or derailing. Why hasn't PTC already been implemented? Cost. It's estimated it will cost $900 million, and that's on top of rising pension and health benefits which are already up 49 percent since 2009.

At some point the investigations and litigation will conclude, engineer fatigue and singular human error will likely be blamed, a career will be ended, and fines and court settlements will be paid. Then expensive new technology and regulations will be implemented, with the higher costs passed on to commuters through higher fares.

Such is progress.