The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) reacts to the Spanish rail crash

Peter Sheppard from the Institution of Engineering and Technology said: “Railways generally have a very high safety record, but it is disappointing to see two recent major incidents (France and Spain) where there has been a significant loss of life.

“However, and this is based on news reports only, it would seem that both are as a result of human error and not the technology involved. The former case (France) appears to be a maintenance issue, the latter case (Spain) based on the first reports seems to be as a result of a significant over speed (although there could well be other factors as what is perceived by passengers is sometime different to reality).

“What has to happen when the enquiries are complete is to determine if there is any methods by which technology could have intervened, prevented or given early warning of these accidents and either supported the infrastructure maintenance teams or advised/intervened in the cab.”

ENDS