[DManA]

I’m amazed that there is no automatic fail safe mechanism to stop the train of the engineer fatally screws up.

[DAC21]

I work in the railroad Signaling and Crossing Equipment Industry. My Co. is the Number one Supplier to the Railroads in N. America. We do not make such a device, (yet) I’m told a few smaller companies are trying to market such devices but site trials are far from being completed.
Vital equipment such as this needs a lot of testing due to the high liability if it fails.

[Mark was here]

Parallel tracks may help, but a train could still rear end a stopped on. For as long as trains have been running on this planet, this type of accident must be exceedingly rare.

[UncleDick]

BNSF has been working on an Electronic Train Management System (ETMS) for a couple of years now. Last I heard they were still in trials, but the technology looks promising.

[JenB]

I work for a company that makes just such devices. Unfortunately all such systems are in early rollout phase and we cannot ramp up to installing systems on every train in the country. If we had ten or fifteen years, sure - but rumor is the FRA is going to demand something in place by 2012. That’s not enough time.

[Vroomfondel]

I’m amazed that there is no automatic fail safe mechanism to stop the train of the engineer fatally screws up.

Me, too. I've got some railroad technical books from the '40s squirrelled away in a box somewhere that describe failsafe systems for this sort of thing.