More on the camera caper

Those of you who read Trains Magazine may have run across my column in the April issue, wherein I ridicule the moves afoot to put inward-facing cameras in locomotive cabs. Actually, that’s not really correct. I sought to beat the living hell out of the notion that such cameras will prevent accidents, as several camera-hogging U.S. senators claim in the aftermath of Metro-North Railroad’s high-speed accident. What they will do, I said, is help assign blame in the aftermath. But don’t delude yourself about accident prevention, because a camera cannot keep you alert.

Obviously, a lot of people disagree with me, witnessed by the moves by one after another railroad railroad to put those cameras in place. One person who called me to task is my friend of at least 30 years, Andrew Fox, president of the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend Railroad (that’s the freight carrier, not the electrified commuter railroad, but they share the same rails). Andrew loves railroading with all his heart and soul; there is not an ounce of the corporate stuffed shirt in this man’s body. Do I agree with or even like what he says? Not really. But his is a point of view that deserves being aired, and without further comment, here it is:

“I just read your piece on inward facing camera and couldn’t disagree more. It is true that at any given moment a camera will not directly prevent an accident and save lives, but the problem that has vexed railroads and most other transportation modes since Adam and Eve is how do you manage employees that are essentially unsupervised. Unlike factory workers who can be supervised constantly, transport supervisors have to rely on their workers to obey all the rules in the absence of direct observation. Technology has now reached the point where one can virtually supervise workers in the field as if they were in a factory, which is a huge boon for safety.

“For example, many trucking and limo companies are installing systems in vehicles that sense every time there is a sudden move (hard brake, swerve, pothole, etc.). The camera (inward and outward) saves the images of what the driver is responding to and it is automatically downloaded to a supervisor who gets an email. The driver’s actions are then evaluated as to whether they were justified or careless, and he is coached on defensive driving techniques if needed. The result….after a few coachings, the incidents of sudden moves drops by 90% and you have a fundamentally safer driver, at least while at work.

“Technology is pervasive. Amtrak MofW workers wear GPS monitors on their clothing to make sure they don’t wander from their protected work zones (or sneak off for coffee). Truck drivers get pinged when they linger longer than the allowed standard at the truck stop. All Chicago taxis have inward cameras.

“While you jest about people monitoring the cameras, that is what happens. At least one Class I railroad, I’m told, has a stationary road foreman who sits in an office at HQ and clicks around from train to train reviewing event recorder data and outward cameras on a spot check basis in real time. He can literally drop in on a crew and watch over their shoulders. This is not just safety related. If the engineer is handling a train in a way that does not optimize fuel consumption…coaching is next. When you have gotten to that capability, what is so offensive about one more camera?

“Many railroads now have a “cab red zone” rule which forbids even talking about anything other than what might be ahead if the signal is less than clear. Without cameras (and associated audio) how do you enforce that? More concerning is how do you completely prevent cell phone/texting without cameras. Chatsworth raised awareness of the issue and generated new rules, but it has not completely stamped it out, I’d venture to say. Some employees will still take the calculated risk they won’t get caught…just like drivers do when they illegally still text and drive. Those who think that problem has completely gone away since Chatsworth are kidding themselves. After all, right after the Metro-North incident, wasn’t nearly everyone’s first reaction…“Gosh, I hope it wasn’t texting”?

“From a management perspective (and the NTSB and the public interest at large) it is all about now having tools to enforce maximum professionalism 24/7. That is the holy grail. No sleeping, no texting, no horseplay, nothing but all business. For the employees and the unions, it is about preserving a shred of the old workplace autonomy and privacy in a world where we as a society have willingly surrendered it. It makes no sense to me that a crew, on duty in an engine, doing safety sensitive work should have an expectation of privacy greater than their counterparts in other modes or even society at large.

“I must admit, though, this sort of thing will diminish some of what made being a railroad employee appealing, as it has over-the-road trucking. Autonomy, and freedom from direct supervision is what draws some people to the railroad way of life. And here is another thought. How many past, present and future railroaders, myself included, would have gotten the calling without the friendly engineer or conductor that gave them, as a teenager, a cab ride on a switch engine without prying eyes. That will never ever happen again.”