As someone who's not as physically and mentally capable as he used to be, I have to ask: This prevents fatigue how? (For some reason I'm still waiting on my January issue...I didn't think I'd see the day when my lifetime subscription expired.)
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
tree68 jeffhergert Not to mention that it's normal to look out the window at the ground to see if you're actually moving, when starting from a stop. Or keeping an eye on an oncoming car at a crossing, to see if they're going to stop. Whole lot of variables there... I suspect there will be negotiations between labor and management as to what constitutes a distraction.
jeffhergert
Not to mention that it's normal to look out the window at the ground to see if you're actually moving, when starting from a stop. Or keeping an eye on an oncoming car at a crossing, to see if they're going to stop. Whole lot of variables there...
I suspect there will be negotiations between labor and management as to what constitutes a distraction.
Did not early diesel locomotives have a spring loaded peddle, that an engineer was required to keep depressed? If the engineer allowed it to move up, it caused an 'unscheduled' brake application(?).
Now someone has created an electronic device to force an engineer to sit bolt-up right, and focus straight ahead? Sounds sort of bizzare. A human being operating heavy equipment is going to move around in their seat, look around [fiddle, if you will?]. Certainly, to react to stimulus in their environment, and as Jeff H., said monitor the train, fore and aft; as well as the cab environment; not to mention interact with the other person in the cab, as they fulfill various operating situations, as required by rules and regulations of their company. juat my thoughts.
jeffhergertThe linked video says looking out the window for a few seconds is a distraction event.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Interesting, in my car it works via detecting minute changes in lane positioning, corective action to lane positioning, response time to speed changes measured by brake pedal pressure. The steering wheel is vibrated if the car detects your not staying awake.........I don't think there is a distraction feature. If it keeps happening with the time between occurences decreasing then the radio is turned down in volume and a audio alarm starts with a image of a coffee cup illuminated on the dash.
I saw this on another site, where it was said Norfolk Southern is going to start using this system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6PBtPYb9DE&feature=youtu.be
The January Trains has an interview with the Wi-Tronix CEO. Although in the interview it's mostly about trespasser incidents, Wi-Tronix also has a fatigue/distraction system that use AI to monitor in cab camera video (and maybe realtime monitoring) and look for signs of fatigue or distraction. The item I saw in Railroad Age says the W-T monitor will look for possible distractions while moving like drinking (plain drinking like water, coffee, pop, etc.), eating, not sitting in an erect, upright position, etc.
One (actually a few more-maybe later) question. The rules require looking back frequently, especially on curves, and inspecting the train. The linked video says looking out the window for a few seconds is a distraction event. So, does this mean people will get fired for following the rules?
Jeff
PS. If you look closely at some shots of the video you'll see that Trains' webcam isn't the only one to have spider issues.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.