At least two senators are pushing for cameras at the train tracks — their political response to a deadly derailment outside the Bronx borough of New York that was attributed to a sleepy engineer who entered a curve at three times the posted speed.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal said, in The Associated Press report: “I know you’re going to hear from Metro-North that there are costs, but the costs of these audio and visual recorders is minuscule, in fact negligible, compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars that this tragic incident will cost Metro-North in the end.”
A week ago, four were killed and more than 60 injured when the train they were riding sped into a curve at 82 mph — while the posted speed was 30 mph. A lawyer for the engineer, William Rockefeller, said the motion of the train could have led him to enter a “daze[d]” state at the controls, AP reported.
The two senators — Democrats — want the Federal Railroad Administration to require audio and visual surveillance in operating cabs and on tracks.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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