Canada has proposed installing inward-facing cameras in locomotive cabs, an idea that’s unfortunately met stiff resistance from labor unions in both Canada and the United States.
Nearly a decade ago, 24 passengers on a Metrolink commuter train were killed along with an engineer who was distracted by text messaging, ran a red signal and collided head on with a freight train. In the aftermath of the crash and while I was chairman of Metrolink Board of Directors, we installed and started using the inward facing cameras even before the NTSB report on the accident formally suggested doing so. The cameras help enlighten accident investigations and, even more importantly, lessen the likelihood that a rogue engineer might do something unsafe in the first place.
Because of these benefits, transportation officials in Canada have proposed amending their Railway Safety Act to mandate inward-facing cameras in all locomotive cabs. The Transportation Modernization Act, filed May 15 by Transport Minister Marc Garneau, would amend Canada’s omnibus Railway Safety Act to require Locomotive Voice and Video Recorders (LVVR) technology.
Why isn’t the U.S. doing the same?
Even though the Canadian amendment limits when and how data from inward-facing cameras can be used, opponents argue that the measure will violate the locomotive employees’ privacy rights (a similar argument was rejected in federal court in California and on appeal to the Ninth Circuit). Adversaries on both sides of the border also insist that cameras won’t stop misconduct or mistakes, but will only lead to finger pointing after a tragedy.
Not only are these criticisms unfounded, but they overlook the most important concern: safety. To continue improving U.S. transit and air safety and prevent as many accidents as possible, inward-facing cameras are necessary. They deter bad conduct by engineers and pilots and provide forensic evidence after accidents; many times the videos from such cameras exonerate the operator of any alleged error claims. They also make operators more self-aware, lessening the likelihood of a tragic misstep.
In the Chatsworth incident, NTSB discovered the conductor had been texting before the wreck. The texting was already prohibited by operating rules, but without a camera, the rule was difficult to enforce.
Also note that there are multiple procedures that can be established as to how and when videos from cameras can be used and reviewed.
The first time that the NTSB proposed inward-facing cameras was not for rail but in planes, after an EgyptAir Flight crashed in 1999. Sadly, the battle for cameras in cockpits plays like a longer version of the rail battle
In addition to concerns of privacy, pilots fear the footage will be misinterpreted or misused. They also assert that the presence of cameras would cause pilots to second guess themselves and deter pilot improvisation, which is sometimes necessary.
These are small and fallacious arguments. Would Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger have failed to safely land in the Hudson River if the cockpit had an inward-facing camera?
Had there been a camera on the Malaysia Airlines Flight in 2014, we might know how a plane managed to vanish into thin air, preventing a tragedy like this from ever happening again.
Despite these continuing tragedies and the head start that planes had on locomotives, very little progress has been made toward cockpit camera installation.
The carnage we see on TV all too often from derailments and plane crashes is, unfortunately, rarely bolstered by news reports about the lack of inward-facing cameras. Because the public is largely kept in the dark about efforts to modify equipment in cockpits and the operator’s cabin on locomotives, a crucial voice has been missing from this debate. Transit companies, their employees and commuters must embrace and push for this technology.
Since Metrolink installed these cameras after the 2008 Chatsworth crash, Union Pacific in 2014 started putting them in over 5,000 of their locomotives and Amtrak has been installing them in its trains in the Northeast Corridor, where they had a fatal derailment in May 2015. Earlier this year, Canadian Pacific launched an awareness campaign, www.cprailsafe.ca, emphasizing the safety benefits of inward-facing cameras. The railroad uses LVVR technology in 50 of its locomotives in the U.S.
Within the past year, the aviation-safety arm of the United Nations, ICAO, proposed the installation of inward facing cameras in planes internationally. Still, this measure only applies to aircrafts built and certified after 2023, and the ICAO does not have the authority to enforce this rule in any country or upon any company.
This all amounts to too few steps in the right direction. The public should demand universal use of inward-facing cameras.
Keith Millhouse, principal at Millhouse Strategies, is an attorney, government relations and transportation/infrastructure consultant based in Southern California.
