points by juliushuijnk 9 hours ago | 0 comments
It should not be possible for one person to make a mistake of this magnitude.
In case of a disconnected/off main safety system, the train should be limited on a hardware level to not be able to go over 40km/h.
[–] Zigurd 8 hours ago
[–] 1718627440 2 hours ago
From what I read the opposite was the case. They kept relying on a fallback system, when manual operation was required: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50298796
[–] aquafox 9 hours ago
Exactly this was my first thought! I always thought highspeed trains operate under a model of clear sectors where one train is just allowed to enter when it was cleared by the previous train. From my layman point of view, those incidents point to a fundamental design flaw.
[–] askvictor 2 hours ago
> It should not be possible for one person to make a mistake of this magnitude
Exactly. Which means a whole bunch of other people allowed for this situation to occur. So it isn't one person responsible for this mistake.
Your suggestion about limiting speed after a shut down is a good one. On top of that, the rail operators should have spotted a trend of repeated safety system overrides and investigated why that was happening.