Name: How to Prevent Train Crashes
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<div class="rich-text">Could a safety technology have prevented a train crash in Washington that killed three?
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Could a safety technology have prevented a train crash in Washington that killed three?

How to Prevent Train Crashes

<div class="rich-text">Could a safety technology have prevented a train crash in Washington that killed three?</div>

Tech & Engineering

<div class="rich-text"><h3>
 How to Prevent Train Crashes
</h3>

 Published January 3, 2018



 Onscreen
 
 : On December 18, 2017, an Amtrak train rocketed around a curve near Tacoma, WA.



 Steven Ditmeyer
 
 : Centrifugal forces knocked the train off the track.



 Onscreen
 
 : It derailed on an overpass, killing 3 and injuring nearly 100. The speed limit on that curve was 30 mph. The train was going 80 mph.



 Ditmeyer
 
 : Positive train control (PTC) would have prevented this kind of an accident.



 Sarah Feinberg
 
 : PTC is a technology that takes over control of the locomotive.



 Onscreen
 
 : Here’s how this automatic failsafe works. The speed restrictions on a train’s route are loaded onto an onboard computer. Along with any temporary speed changes due to construction, track work, incapacitated trains. That gives the train a set of maximum speeds. GPS calculates the train’s position and speed.



 Ditmeyer
 
 : A train that exceeds its speed at any point—there’s an automatic application of the brakes to slow it down.



 Onscreen
 
 : Sound Transit, Amtrak, and BNSF Railway installed PTC on the route where the accident occurred. But it wasn’t in operation because testing was incomplete. If PTC had been functional, it may have prevented the derailment. By law, all passenger rail lines will be required to have PTC installed by the end of 2018.
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