Railroads Need Overhaul

I was looking at the latest on the rail crash in Graniteville, South Carolina. The three rail workers responsible for the crash (according to their bosses) have now been fired. It seems they opened a switch to put a train on a siding, and then failed to reset the switch. As a result the next train came along and crashed into the stopped train. I find it unbelievable that the railways have not been modernized to avoid such a situation. The switching system used is out of the 19th century! We have the technology to place sensors on the tracks to tell which way a switch is set, and what obstacles might be in the way of any oncoming traffic directed by such a switch setting. The individuals may have failed to reset the switch, but if the railroad was not 150 years behind the times this situation would never have transpired. See the article here:

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-PLS&idq=/ff/story/0001/20050205/1642154388.htm

I'll be back

CC