(The Amarillo Globe-News posted the following column by David Horsley on its website on April 7.)
AMARILLO, Texas — A story in last week’s newspaper included a sentence which leaped off the page at me. It concerned a March 30 train derailment in south Amarillo.
Eight cars of an 84-car train derailed between Georgia and Western streets. There were no injuries.
Here’s the sentence that grabbed my attention: “It was not a remote-controlled train.”
Now, wait just a doggone minute. Since when do we have remote-control trains? I guess I wasn’t paying attention when this practice began. As if railroad crossings weren’t dangerous enough, now we’re told there are no human beings driving some of the trains.
From an organization called the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers I obtained a pamphlet about remote-control trains. Obviously engineers would be against remote-control trains, because it puts them out of work as well as presents a public safety risk which reflects poorly on their profession.
But I can’t imagine who would be in favor of driverless trains. Don’t the railroads make enough to afford one engineer per train?
The pamphlet shows a photo of a roadside sign, apparently near some railroad tracks: “Attention. Remote control locomotives operate in this area. Locomotive cabs may be unoccupied.”
Lately I’ve been spending time riding shotgun with a teen-ager who is learning to drive. We all know that young drivers don’t yet have sound judgment and good motor skills in all situations.
Imagine you’re a passenger when your teen-ager stalls the car at a railroad crossing. In his panic to restart the car, he floods the engine. Then the bell begins to ding and the crossing arms come down. You hop out to flag down the oncoming train, only to discover that the locomotive cab is unoccupied. This sounds like a bad dream.
I’m hoping someone on the management side of trains will contact me with their side of the story. I can’t fathom how this practice could be legal if it’s as bad as it sounds. Are pilotless airliners next?
David Horsley can be contacted in care of the Amarillo Globe-News, P.O. Box 2091, Amarillo TX 79166, or letters@amarillonet.com.