Regarding the previous comment about "wide gauge" - I think this is more of a catch all phrase for insufficient track structure. In most cases, you can look at a derailment and often good a good idea as to the general cause. I spent too much time on the ground this summer on a shortline that was all excepted track. Most of the issues were heat and rail related, though even a sun kink will blow out and actually become wide gauge which actually dumps the cars. Also had a couple derailments where an empty rocked off due to cross level. You can also get an idea where slack may be running, and especially if there is an event recorder download you can add in excessive speed or poor train handling. Of course, if it piles up too bad or things get moved around before someone with some experience investigates, it is hard to get a probable cause.

As OPB says, where a crew has no idea except for 2 hours notice when they are going to work, then the probability of human error increases especially if they are on duty at 0-dark-30. Alertors help, but aren't the only answer. I would be interested to know a breakdown of humon error wrecks as to how many are attributable to short rest or odd duty hours, and how many involved 90 day wonders.

In addition to over-educated management more concerned with the day's stock price, I think a good share of blame has to be allocated to government over-regulation. There are too few experienced and reasonable supervisors on the ground, and in the case of train crews they are required to spend most of their time doing efficiency tests (and resulting write-ups) as mandated by the FRA instead of mentoring the employees.

Not to worry - PTC will solve everything! Within a few years it will be engineer only and some tech guy in India will be "big brother" over several trains with a camera over the engineer's shoulder.