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Re: Synopsis from NTSB
Author: Mark
Date: 06-20-2013 - 00:16
OPRRMS Wrote:
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> <> There were two men in the cab. Even if the
> engineer's eyesight issues rendered him completely
> blind, the conductor was sitting right there
> across the cab from him. Why didn't he take any
> action?
>
> <> The engineer's eyesight issues had been known
> to the railroad since at least 2009. Why, on this
> particular trip, did it suddenly become a problem?
> He'd made hundreds of other trips between 2009
> and 2012, all successfully. What was different
> this day?
My opthamologist gave me a colored brochure showing what people with various forms of color blindness actually see.
In one type, red appears black but yellows are unaffected. That means he should have been able to see both the Flashing Yellow and Yellow signals and the Red (appearing black) would have been covered under GCOR 5.15 which says to treat improperly displayed signals as the most restrictive indication.
In another type, green appears to be yellow. It wouldn't take long for the conductor or management to detect this form of color blindness because every time he encountered a clear signal, he would see it as a yellow Approach and run his train at 30 MPH instead -- even though he was on a clear (green) signal.
Another type renders reds as yellowish-green, but regular yellows are unaffected. So why didn't he at least slow down for the Flashing Yellow and Yellow indications?
Another type renders yellows as white. The Flashing Yellow signal appearing as Flashing "white" would have required him to take action under GCOR 5.15, as would a non-flashing "white" that could pass as a lunar Restricting signal.
Unless he was completely color blind (highly doubtful), all of the common color blindless types would not prevent him from knowing it was time to slow down. I don't think a railroader could last more than a few days being completely color blind. Moreover, weren't these colorlights where he could have seen which bulb was lit? I used to think the NTSB did a reasonably good job, but not in recent years! More and more, their reports show poor logic and an elementary understanding of railroad operations.
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> <> There were two men in the cab. Even if the
> engineer's eyesight issues rendered him completely
> blind, the conductor was sitting right there
> across the cab from him. Why didn't he take any
> action?
>
> <> The engineer's eyesight issues had been known
> to the railroad since at least 2009. Why, on this
> particular trip, did it suddenly become a problem?
> He'd made hundreds of other trips between 2009
> and 2012, all successfully. What was different
> this day?
My opthamologist gave me a colored brochure showing what people with various forms of color blindness actually see.
In one type, red appears black but yellows are unaffected. That means he should have been able to see both the Flashing Yellow and Yellow signals and the Red (appearing black) would have been covered under GCOR 5.15 which says to treat improperly displayed signals as the most restrictive indication.
In another type, green appears to be yellow. It wouldn't take long for the conductor or management to detect this form of color blindness because every time he encountered a clear signal, he would see it as a yellow Approach and run his train at 30 MPH instead -- even though he was on a clear (green) signal.
Another type renders reds as yellowish-green, but regular yellows are unaffected. So why didn't he at least slow down for the Flashing Yellow and Yellow indications?
Another type renders yellows as white. The Flashing Yellow signal appearing as Flashing "white" would have required him to take action under GCOR 5.15, as would a non-flashing "white" that could pass as a lunar Restricting signal.
Unless he was completely color blind (highly doubtful), all of the common color blindless types would not prevent him from knowing it was time to slow down. I don't think a railroader could last more than a few days being completely color blind. Moreover, weren't these colorlights where he could have seen which bulb was lit? I used to think the NTSB did a reasonably good job, but not in recent years! More and more, their reports show poor logic and an elementary understanding of railroad operations.
