Ive been a trainman with a major class 1 for the last 17 years. In my career i can remember where ive done my job by making an emergency application of the brakes 4 times where the engineer was either not able or unsure about it. Each time certain death and major disaster was avoided. How many conductors are working in the USA? How many times have they done their job? How many disasters have been avoided? Im sure someone will do the math. Nobody ever seems to look at this way.