News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Amtrak derailment: safety gear was not active after rush ... by dboreham on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @09:29PM (#15975883)
Even an app on the driver’s phone that alerts when they’re exceeding the speed limit would have prevented many of the recent crashes because the drivers weren’t incapacitated - just distracted or confused. Many recent cars also know when you’re driving over the speed limit and display an alert. Not billions of $
Re:Amtrak derailment: safety gear was not active after rush ... by shagie on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @09:39PM (#15975943)
An AP Press reprint: http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-news/20171219/engineer-i...

> Engineer in fatal Amtrak derailment might have been distracted by trainee in locomotive

> Investigators are looking into whether the Amtrak engineer whose speeding train plunged off an overpass, killing at least three people, was distracted by the presence of an employee-in-training next to him in the locomotive, a federal official said Tuesday.

> The official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators want to know whether the engineer lost “situational awareness” because of the second person in the cab.

Just distracted or confused is a real possibility that is being looked into.

Re:Amtrak derailment: safety gear was not active after rush ... by AstralStorm on Thursday December 21, 2017 @09:29AM (#15978924)
In which case a standard attention system would have worked. The ancient ATS that just stops the train when not cleared.