Hacker News Reader

The right move here would've been to accept the suggestion to drive the train, but not accept the suggestion to drive it at normal speed. The driver should have driven at 40km/h.

View on HN

It's not a suggestion, it is an order and a movement authority. That would have been nice, but the drivers are not required to make such a decision. The moment you issue a movement authority, you must assume the train operates with the max speed and distance of it immediately, and that must be safe. Train drivers do not decide for the speed and trajectory a train is going to take. They are responsible for that their train drives safely inside the movement authorities given to them, they are not able and hence not responsible to ensure the safety of the network. They are more equivalent to a car mechanic, not to a car driver.

You know who else was "just following orders"? Nazis.

If someone gives you an order that you know has high risk of killing you and your passengers, you can just say no and not do it.

+1 high speed should only be enabled by multiple redundant safety system being operational. Otherwise, it needs to operate at line of sight speeds.

"not high-speed" != "not line of sight" High speed is the speed when you can no longer safely drive by signals, not the speed when you are not able to safely observe the breaking distance. Trains are not supposed to operate under the latter (normally).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com