> By creating a rule, any rule, it acts as a tool for the company to place blame on a
> offending employee, and thus limit the company's liablity (as in, "We have a rule
> against it, and the man violated it.")

Speaking as a signal engineer often called upon to assist in incident investigations, I will grant that railroads (in my view) are in way too big a hurry to place "blame", rather than ascertain the true cause and just remedy that cause. I think that is worse now as, a defensive posture to avoid being sued.

On my Grandfather's railroad, if you voluntarily reported your mistake before any questioning or answered honestly the first time you were questioned, you were guaranteed not to lose your job or be suspended, as long as the infraction was not the result of willful misconduct. But failing to promptly report an incident could get a minimum 90 day suspension, and lying about it would get you summarily fired, even if no one got hurt.

In any event, as long as they are honest about it, crewmen should not be fired or adversely disciplined just for inadvertent violations, but only for repetitive violations made, knowing the rules but willfully disregarding them. Of course that's tougher to prove; in most cases because it was not really willful in the first place. When it is really willful - it is usually painfully obvious - such as at Chatsworth.

That is similar to the standard applied to design engineers, such as myself. A simple inadvertent mistake will usually be set aside, as long as there are lessons learned and it doesn't happen too often. But fail to get your work peer reviewed, or willfully disregard the peer review, and someone gets killed; expect to go to prison for negligent homicide.


> . . . . . but it doesn't prevent the infraction from
> happening. Only an employee with the ability to follow instructions and use common
> sense can do that.

True, the rules themselves can do nothing - they are mere words. But common sense really isn't all that common - not any more, if it ever was. It is actual employee behavior that counts.

But even common sense will not necessarily tell you everything you need to know to stay safe. Common sense comes from experience. Do the cause - experience the effect. But many causes of accident are damn subtle and even esoteric. Most often, many latent causes of accident go unnoticed by common sense, because they must be combined with other latent causes, in order to actually produce an accident. Such latent causes are common. In fact, most accidents are caused by a combination of latent causes. So most of the time there is no "do the cause - experience the effect" to teach the needed common sense.

Then one day - whammo, the latencies combine and someone dies. I have seen that scenario play out in numerous investigations. The latent nature of most causes, will lull almost anybody into a false sense of security, even while actually doing the same dangerous thing day after day. Then its, "What the hell went wrong", if they even survive to say it - that is.

That is where the "Rules" come in. They can and should convey the collective experience (common sense) gained in the nearly two hundred years of railroad history. So it is then possible to know what latent causes of accident to avoid, based upon someone else's experience. Not just your own. In my mind that should greatly expand anyone's "common sense" to include 180 years of experience by thousands.


> Saying that rules are written in blood is merely a scare tactic that one could
> apply to just about anything, whether they really do or not.

If saying that rules are written in blood, is a scare tactic; then so be it!

It also plainly and honestly, and sharply, declares just why those rules should be respected.

And every responsible person should know why they do what they do, even if what they are doing is to simply follow a rule. Blindly following rules never produces high compliance - and even promotes contempt. Contempt of the rules then naturally produces willful violation. And disregarding the collective experience of thousands over centuries, is done only at great peril.

But real understanding that most of the rules are there, because of someone else's experience (even their death), will naturally engender high compliance; simply because you know why you are doing it - because you respect the terrible price paid to get that collective common sense. Why waste it!

And yes, railroad training departments should teach a lot more about the historical events that brought about the various rules - for even better understanding.