But then zoom out a bit, circa 1980 there were years with more than 3000 derailments.
Discussion
So we’re probably just paying more attention right now. PTC and other controls are supposed to prevent this, but lots of rail operations still rely on very human-based controls. Just learned that Train Approach Warning systems are actually just people whose job it is to let their colleagues know a train is coming. There’s some patents for GPS based train approach systems, but majority is still just humans. That’s in the rail yard.
Most big accidents, like Lac-Megantic, were caused by several mistakes, mostly operator error, that combining to create the nightmare scenario. I don’t know enough about the Ohio derailment say anything that isn’t speculation, but I’d guess the same.
And what’s really wild is that rail companies are lobbying to decrease minimum conductor requirements from 2 people to 1, and also to increase the max hours they can work.