Preventing Train Accidents

A train accident can be very serious and fatal. Suchsome of the train accidents that occurred in the past
accidents are usually as a result of varieties of humanwere as a direct cause of intoxication and drug abuse
or mechanical factors. Both factors can also work inby some of the rail road employees who were
tandem to cause a serious train accident. Most of theassigned to man trains whilst under the influence of
administrators of rail roads concur that majority of thethese drugs. However, in the recent past, the norm is
mechanical failures that may cause a train accidentto carry out drug testing after each train accident. This
are usually results of a deferment in the maintenancehas substantially reduced the number of such
of the train and rail road.accidents.
A number of rail road companies do not invest enoughThirdly, rail road crew members are also subject to
money in the maintenance of their machines and thehuman error. This may sometimes lead to a train
pathways they use. The engines are also ignored. Allaccident. Most of the times, these employees are very
this happens in a bid to eke out even greater returns inhighly trained and specialized in their field. They also
terms of profits from their often lofty investments. Thetend to be very experienced before they can be
companies are known to postpone and even reduceallocated trains to man. However, human is to error
the maintenance to the rolling tracks and stock. In fact,and thus train accidents become totally unavoidable.
the number of workers employed to performMostly, these errors are as a direct consequence of
maintenance tasks has dwindled drastically in the pastfatigue. Rail road management bodies are therefore
few years.urged to employ more crew members to ensure that
On the other hand, most of the human factors that aretheir current employees do not get overworked
commonly known to lead to any train accident revolveleading to the despicable accidents.
around three main precincts. The first involvesHowever, we cannot put all the blame on the people
problems with the health of the members of the trainrunning the trains and railways. Clients and passengers
crews. If ailing crew members are forced to workare also to blame in some circumstances. This means
(such as by being denied sick leaves), the result couldthat they have some responsibilities in preventing train
be catastrophic since ill members of the crew cannotaccidents.
be expected to fully perform their duties in anIn conclusion, trains should be given an allowance to
effective and timely manner.pass for example at intersections between railways
The second human factor revolves around the issueand roads. This is because it is harder for a train to
of substance abuse. Members of train crews arestop that it is for an automobile. Also, passengers
human beings, and as such are subject to a number ofshould be very cooperative to enable train workers
temptations and addictions. It has been revealed thatconcentrate better in their job.