Common causes of railway accidents
Train accidents are common around the world, with the media regularly reporting railway accidents and the causes leading to the occurrence of the accidents. The common causes of railway accidents which commonly catch news headlines include head-on collision and derailment of a train, with a paucity of funds by the government commonly being blamed for the low standards of the railways. The accidents are often caused by human faults leading to the loss of many lives annually. In addition, railway accidents lead to losses in government property and also lead to the setting up of inquiry commissions for the analysis of the causes of railway accidents in order to implement mitigation measures and prevent accidents in future. The paper seeks to establish the safety breaches leading to the derailment of the Santiago de Compostela train.
Safety breaches leading to the disaster included human error, whereby the driver of the train had his attention repeatedly distracted by phone calls from the inspector in charge of the rail line which leads to Santiago de Compostela. Lasting for one minute and forty-two seconds, the last phone call provided enough time for the train to emerge from the final tunnel just before where the curve is, a distance of more than 5.5 kilometers (Shultz et al., 2016). After terminating the call, the driver realized that the train was moving at a high speed while approaching the “A Grandeira” curve. Due to his engagement with the call, the train driver failed to respond to the alerts warning him of excessive speed three separate times. Although he tried to apply the brakes in the final seconds, the driver could not prevent the crash due to the high speed which caused the train to vault from the rails.
Another safety breach which led to the train’s crash was due to the absence of automated safety engineering which would have reduced the train’s speed hence preventing the crash (Margry & Sánchez-Carretero, 2011). The automated system applies the brakes and slows the train down if the driver does not reduce the speed. The system would have effectively prevented the fatalities which occurred following the crash since derailment would not have occurred if the train was moving at a slow speed as it would have successfully navigated around the arc. The automatic control technology is important as it alerts the driver of the train’s excessive speed and brakes if no action is taken (Glendon, Clarke & McKenna, 2016). Additionally, the train driver has enough time to respond to the excessive speed warning alerts which normally go off several times so as to capture the attention of the driver.
Safety breaches leading to the Santiago de Compostela train crash
Additionally, excessive velocity led to the derailment of the train (Parkinson & Bamford, 2016). The introduction of the high-speed train resulted to trains moving at an excessively high velocity which is dangerous if the train approaches a curve at such high speeds hence making it impossible for the train to successively navigate the curves. Train engineers are trained to stay alert and be aware of such curves and ensure that the train is moving at a safe speed to avoid excessive velocity hence avoiding crash incidents.
Furthermore, lack of policies to manage how train drivers could engage in mobile phone calls led to the crash (Shultz, 2017). Policy implementation would ensure that the period in which the train driver engages in phone calls is governed by restrictions in order to avoid excessive disturbances and loss of concentration which may result to the driver not responding to speed warnings or not noticing an approaching arc. After the implementation of the new policies, train drivers will be keener on their job since they will be bound by the rules and policies set out within their area of expertise.
Change of policies and practices provides better solutions for future accidents as governments of different countries try to implement new policies and strategies which will deal with the occurrence of train accidents. According to Bloomfield et al. (2017) when the government identifies loopholes which might endanger the lives of others, change is always planned immediately and implemented to maintain safeness of the citizens.
After the train accident occurred, the government changed employment policies whereby there was a recommendation that all employees working with the train be audited annually to validate their competency in their duties and responsibilities (Smith & Zhou, 2018). Furthermore, trainees were restricted against direct involvement in all activities concerning trains without close monitoring from their supervisors. The policy came forward after claims emerged that some employees were not well conversant with safety rules and if passengers were educated on ways of surviving disasters, the risk could have been reduced significantly. The policy was implemented by the government appointing a qualified committee who were mandated to recruit and manage employees. Incase of accident occurrence as a result of careless driving and failure of observing safety rules, the committee was responsible for the risk. In a separate incident, lack of enough training and experience also emerged as a safety breach where the network controller operating south A panel at NCCS, who was on-job-training under a supervisor so as to qualify as a network controller failed to control the accident of a train at Glendale in Australia. Furthermore, the trainee had no previous experience in the rail industry (Baysari, Caponecchia, McIntosh & Wilson, 2009).
Changes in policy and practice after the incident
In a comparison with other years, the accident contributed to more funds being budgeted for improvement of signaling, tracks maintenance, passenger amenities, and operational facilities. The implementation of this budgetary change practices saw old railway lines and tracks being renovated and others replaced with new ones with minimized risks. The policy was enacted as the researcher claimed that railway lines were no well maintained at the time of the accident.
The posting of speed limit signs policies was mandated after the accident (Forsberg & Vázquez, 2016). The implementation was successfully enacted by all brakes of trains being upgraded and drivers of tracks being well advised to be keen on braking. Furthermore, if the driver had been keen on brakes the impact of the accident could be much lower or the risk could not occur at all. The reinforcement of established safety management system practices was also enacted as a way of extending the procedures of safeness to all railway companies by using the channel of National Railway Safety Authority (NRSA) (Low & Astle, 2009). Furthermore, the policy resulted in the reestablishment of the traffic committee with all railway companies representatives mandated to analyze all risks involved in railway lines. The representatives were also delegated additional new roles of analyzing route-specific routes during the development process of new railway lines.
The policy governing communication existed before the accident was restructured. More policies were implemented on networks and communication protocols. The new policy of communication that was implemented saw the railway sector developing secure systems of communication for all employees of trains hence diminishing risks related to distractions. Furthermore, the cause of the accident resulted from distractions of phone calls making the driver to lose control. New policies such as surveillance of the driver’s cabin and implementation of audio and video recording practices commenced operation and integrated digital systems allowing for the train’s speed to reduce (Britton, Asnaashari & Read, 2017).
Conclusion
The study has clearly indicated that train accidents have reduced significantly as a result of strict safety rules which have been placed by the Australian and overseas governments. Breaching of the safety rules has seen people who are involved in train accidents being prosecuted for endangering lives of passengers. In order to curb the future occurrence of train accidents or reduce the accidents significantly and ensure there are improved safeness and security, governments should ensure remedial measures are taken and policies implemented. There must be effective responsibilities and accountability, and railways should be operated professionally and managed appropriately with the commitment of earning enough profits so as to make a huge investment in improving the transport industry. Furthermore, the automatic signaling system and modern advanced technologies need to be introduced and implemented in the railway sector with expertise and expert foreign advice being sought as a way of eliminating mechanical failures. Additionally, implementation of strategies and changing existing policies are the best measures for ending train accidents in future (Baysari, McIntosh & Wilson, 2008).
References
Baysari, M. T., Caponecchia, C., McIntosh, A. S., & Wilson, J. R. (2009). Classification of errors contributing to rail incidents and accidents: A comparison of two human error identification techniques. Safety Science, 47(7), 948-957.
Baysari, M. T., McIntosh, A. S., & Wilson, J. R. (2008). Understanding the human factors contribution to railway accidents and incidents in Australia. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 40(5), 1750-1757.
Bloomfield, R., Bendele, M., Bishop, P., Stroud, R., & Tonks, S. (2016, June). The risk assessment of ERTMS-based railway systems from a cyber security perspective: Methodology and lessons learned. In International Conference on Reliability, Safety and Security of Railway Systems (pp. 3-19). Springer, Cham.
Britton, M. A., Asnaashari, S., & Read, G. J. (2017). Analysis of train derailment cause and outcome in Victoria, Australia, between 2007 and 2013: Implications for regulation. Journal of Transportation Safety & Security, 9(1), 45-63.
Forsberg, R., & Vázquez, J. A. I. (2016). A case study of the high-speed train crash outside Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. Prehospital and disaster medicine, 31(2), 163-168.
Glendon, A. I., Clarke, S., & McKenna, E. (2016). Human safety and risk management. Crc Press.
Low, N., & Astle, R. (2009). Path dependence in urban transport: an institutional analysis of urban passenger transport in Melbourne, Australia, 1956–2006. Transport Policy, 16(2), 47-58.
Margry, P. J., & Sánchez-Carretero, C. (Eds.). (2011). Grassroots memorials: the politics of memorializing traumatic Death (Vol. 12). Berghahn Books.
Parkinson, H. J., & Bamford, G. (2016, April). The potential for using big data analytics to predict safety risks by analyzing rail accidents. In 3rd International Conference on Railway Technology: Research, Development and Maintenance, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy (pp. 5-8).
Shultz, J. M. (2017). The 2013 Santiago de Compostela Train Crash: High-Speed Derailment, Medical Trauma, and Psychological Aftermath. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 32(S1), S114-S114.
Shultz, J. M., Garcia-Vera, M. P., Santos, C. G., Sanz, J., Bibel, G., Schulman, C., … & Rechkemmer, A. (2016). Disaster complexity and the Santiago de Compostela train derailment. Disaster health, 3(1), 11-31.
Smith, R. A., & Zhou, J. (2018). Background of recent developments of passenger railways in China, the UK and other European countries. In China’s High-Speed Rail Technology (pp. 47-65). Springer, Singapore.
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