International Railroad Discussion > JR Hokkaido Safety Investigation from Last January

Hokkaido is the northernmost of the 4 main islands that make up Japan. JR stands for Japan Railway, and JR Hokkaido is one of the 7 agencies split up from the government-run Japan National Railways privatization in 1987, and is responsible for running trains on the island of Hokkaido.

http://www.tokyoweekender.com/2014/01/dozens-of-jr-hokkaido-employees-punished-following-safety-investigation/

I bring this article up, because on Friday night, a crew forgot to activate the ATS (Automatic Train Stop system) on his limited express train, the Super Kamui #41 from Sapporo to Asahikawa. He turned it on after departure, but the ATS system didn't function normally, so he stopped the train and notified the dispatcher. The train suffered a 13 minute delay, which is a huge deal in Japan.

I've yet to find an English translation of Friday's incident, and I doubt I'll find one soon, since this isn't a major news event, so I decided to post this thread for anyone curious. I found the above link because I figured there was more to the story since railroad employees in Japan are highly trained and simply don't forget a procedure. The above link implies there's a safety culture problem within JR Hokkaido. I don't know of any high technology that can fix THAT.

So proponents of PTC who think technology can "eliminate" human errors should think again. Nevermind that software is written by humans, people who make decisions are also humans.

If you are willing to commit suicide to take responsibility like the ex-President of JR Hokkaido, take a 3 months pay cut like the current President and chairman, along with media publicity to make sure everyone knows you are at fault, then go ahead and blame everything on the employees. :-)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/14 18:04 by cchan006.