Professional freight trainmen, at least here in the US, are scared of the commuter train guys - for this very reason. Their just not as safe as the freight guys.

ATP is expensive, yes, but it looks like either AWS (introduced in 1950s and prototyped on GWR even before that) or TPWS (introduced much more recently, as a cheap stop-gap before ATP) could have prevented this accident.

Based on the evidence presently available, of course.

Personally, I think ATP is overkill except for very fast express trains. AWS combined with TPWS is much cheaper, and more than sufficient for typical US line speeds.

'fraid not - Darwin Award rules state "Killing others: The death of innocent bystanders absolutely rules out a Darwin Award."

I, for once, welcome our new acronym wielding overlords....

If memory serves (and the information is fairly old) I vaguely remember that the SNCF (the french railways) has/had a simple buzzer system :- buzzer sounds at irregular intervals, engineer has to press a flashing button. If the button is not pressed in a pre-determined time, the power is cut and the emergency brakes automatically applied.

maybe we should go back to the old stye signal with arms on, and when at red make it swing very low with a big water filled ballon, right in front of the cab window, that may get the drivers attention....

Sorry but I cant see how *any* rail network can be allowed to operate where passenger safety is dependent on a guy pressing the brakes at a red light, simple electronics can be fitted to do this to ever train for less than a thousand dollars easily, and more like 200 dollars if done on the cheap.

all it needs is for the red light to power a pulsing IR source like as simple as a remote control for the TV, chipset cost $1, recevier chipset on front of train, $1, electronics, $5, big motor to press on brake pedal or relay to shut off power, $10...............

Better still have it connected to the orange/green, and put emitters every mile, no signal no movement. unless an overide button is pressed every 30 seconds.

Am I missing something here or what..........