alt Hacker NewsWere there no dead man's handles on those trains? Or do they have them and the drivers fall asleep frequently and most were caught in time but these two fell asleep at the latest possible moment?
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trhway • yesterday at 11:16 PM
without situational awareness, there is no good default behavior for a simple dead man handle on a hundreds ton train.
These days though i wonder why we don't have [semi-]autonomous control there. At least for emergency stop when the end of rails is 100 feet away and your speed is 20mph - any new car have such features today.
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I have also seen a separate deadman device installed on some trains, it beeps, you push a button or the train stops.
I find it very strange that the example trains crashed at 21mph....was the deadman brake already slowing them down?
Because if the driver was decelerating deliberately I find it difficult to beehive that is when they fell asleep
I've never driven a train, but i have driven a car.