Amtrak and other engineers soon to be on candid cab camera
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Emergency personnel work the scene of a train wreck, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Philadelphia. An Amtrak train headed to New York City derailed and crashed in Philadelphia. (Joseph Kaczmarek/AP Photo)
The move to install cameras to monitor train engineers is gathering steam.
The Obama administration says it’s drafting rules to require that railroads install video cameras inside locomotive cabs to record what engineers are doing.
Amtrak spokesman Craig Schulz says the passenger line had already promised to install them in the wake of the deadly May derailment in Philadelphia.
“We intend to install inward facing cameras here on the Northeast Corridor as well as the rest of the locomotive fleet which will take a little bit longer,” he said.
Amtrak already has cameras that show the engineer’s view out of the windshield.
If the camera on the derailed train had been facing the engineer, it could have helped figure out why he sped up in the moments before the fatal crash at Frankford Junction that killed 8 and injured 200 more.
The engineer in the crash says he does not remember what happened just before the derailment.
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