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<h1 style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">MONITORING CREW ALERTNESS</h1>  <o:p></o:p> Regarding this NTSB report on the Iowa rear end collision last year on the BNSF:  <o:p></o:p> <a href="http://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/2012/red_oak_ia/index.html">http://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/2012/red_oak_ia/index.html</a>  <o:p></o:p> Quote from the link:  <o:p></o:p> “15. Had an inward-facing video and audio recorder been installed in the cab of the locomotive of the striking train, additional valuable information about the train crew’s actions before the collision would have been available.”  <o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> The NTSB does not clarify exactly what they believe would be the value of the “additional valuable information.”  But, it sounds like the point they are making is that the “additional valuable information” would have been valuable in investigating the cause of the collision.   <o:p></o:p> However, it seems to me that the greatest value in observing the crew by camera would have been first, in learning that they were asleep, and then second, acting on that information by waking them up.  In other words, the value would have been in preventing the collision rather than in investigating it.   <o:p></o:p> In any case, the NTSB had no problem in learning that both crewmembers were asleep even though they were not observed to be sleeping.     <o:p></o:p> An important point to consider is that if a camera is used to monitor crew wakefulness, the camera has to be watched by another person full time in real time.  Perhaps just the presence of inward-facing cameras on locomotives would intimidate the crew into being more diligent in their behavior, and therefore they would work harder to stay awake.    That way, the camera could do its job without even needing to be monitored.  But the crew would not know whether the camera was being monitored or not, so they would have to act as though it were being monitored.
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