Metrolink announced plans Monday to activate video cameras in all of its commuter trains.This is the same union attitude which won't allow school districts to monitor teachers for their performance, but at least teachers aren't controlling hundreds of tons of locomotive and passenger cars. Cameras good, distracted locomotive engineers bad. It's really not that hard to understand.
The move comes after a Metrolink passenger train collided head-on with a Union Pacific freight train on Sept. 12, 2008, killing 25 people.
The Metrolink engineer, Robert Sanchez, who was killed, was found to have been text messaging only seconds before the crash.
Metrolink announced Monday that all its 52 passenger trains will have cameras pointing into each locomotive's cab as well as cameras facing outward to record activity in front of the train. Audio will also be recorded.
The union representing the nation's train engineers opposes putting cameras in the trains, and some safety experts question its efficacy.
Metrolink is Southern California's regional commuter rail service, serving Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Metrolink Trains Get Cab Cameras
I'm really kind of surprised this wasn't done long ago:
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2 comments:
Cameras for safety issues, like in transportation cockpits, are one thing. The proliferation of cameras in the workplace to spy on employees is creepy, and loaded with abuse potential.
I worked in an ER where they had a camera in the nurse's station. Security had a bad habit of using the camera to follow the cute nurses around. Like I say, creepy. So creepy, the male employees in the ER threw a towel over the thing in disgust.
Overall, if employees are doing their job they should have no fear of cameras in the workplace. It's when employees steal, damage equipment, bother other employees,
sleep on the job, etc. that they should fear the cameras.
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