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I can't recall a collision in recent years caused by a train crew taking a dispatcher's advisory statement as something more than it was intended, but I could be wrong. The key here is never to give a train verbal information about signal indications. The dispatcher's console doesn't show signal indications anyway, only requests. However, there's plenty of other information a dispatcher can give a train crew that doesn't conflict with this rule. The principal courtesy I was taught was to advise train crews of meets in order that they can lay off crossings, and to know if they'll be there for more than one train, and how long, so they can plan their moves. Otherwise there will extra radio calls from train crews wondering what's going on taking up your time, a lot of bad meets, and grade crossings blocked longer than they need to be. By the same token, I often asked the opposing train to advise a train in the siding when they were getting close, so the train in the siding could pull down to the switch at the right time. This is pretty valuable when your railroad has 10-mph siding switches, non-bonded sidings, and lots of grade crossings through sidings. The preponderance of collisions in which dispatching played a direct or indirect role that I've read about and witnessed from afar are: 1. Authority excursions -- a train or maintainer exceeds its authority. These include a train proceeding past the limit of its DTC or TWC authority, or passing an absolute signal indicating stop. These are not as rare as one would think. 2. Getting on the wrong track -- a dispatcher authorizes a maintainer to set on a main track in multiple main track territory, but the maintainer sets on the wrong track. 3. Missed repeats -- a train repeats a TWC or DTC authority incorrectly, with unauthorized limits, and the dispatcher fails to catch it. If there's another authority in the same territory, a disaster is in the offing. 4. Joint track-and-time errors: a dispatcher fails to make all trains/maintainers in a track-and-time joint; one of these does not know about the other and fails to proceed at restricted speed. 5. Restricted speed errors: A train required to proceed at restricted speed does not. 6. After arrival of errors: A maintainer or train is authorized to occupy a main train "After arrival of a train," but for a variety of reasons sets on ahead of it. 7. Roll-up errors: a train releases the territory behind it in TWC or DTC territory, but actually gives away the track underneath it and some distance ahead of it, too. I've also seen dispatchers do this as a train left TWC/DTC territory and enter CTC -- self-releasing the TWC authority the moment something assumed to be the train hits the OS at the control point! -- a big rules violation. 8. Temporary speed restriction errors -- a dispatcher doesn't update all trains with a new speed restriction. There have been some collisions in recent years in which technically no rule was violated by a dispatcher, but some poor dispatching practices were a factor. One I recall was on another railroad. A train was dead on hours-of-service on a main track, tied down between siding switches. The dispatcher gave an opposing train TWC authority up to the siding, through the siding, and continuing on the main track on the other side as well. A few hours later, the opposing train crew arrived. By that time apparently they forgot there was a take-siding instruction in the middle of their main-track authority because they were focused on the end point of the authority. The train arrived at the siding at too great a speed to take the switch. The train crew in this case had failed to comply with the warrant, clearly. But it would have been much better to not have issued the warrant in this way, but to issue another authority from the siding to the main track, after the train arrived in the siding. I can't recall if the opposing train was ever advised there was a dead train on the main track in front of it, either. This was talked about by the old heads in my office as an object lesson for us young dispatchers: "Don't set up train crews!"
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