DERAILMENT DETECTORS
Posted on 02 October 2009 by Railways Africa Editor
The European Railway Agency (ERA), in a recent assessment of potential safety benefits to be derived from the fitting of derailment detectors, found that on average less than one fatality per year would be avoided through their use. It recommended to the European Commission that proposed regulations requiring the provision of detectors should not be adopted. “Ironically,” Dr Manfred Walter of Knorr-Bremse Rail Vehicle Systems writes to Railway Gazette International, “this was just a few weeks before the Viareggio derailment which killed at least 24 people.”
He continues: “According to ERA, the fact that the derailment detectors now available operate autonomously, and cannot be overridden from the driver’s cab, ‘might be inconsistent with existing emergency procedures in some member states’.
“ERA believes that member states already have sufficient powers under Directive 2008/68/EC on the inland transport of dangerous goods, which came into force on 30 June 2009. This enables them to impose risk reduction measures to deal with specific threats in particular locations, which could be enhanced by the provision of new risk assessment standards applicable across all modes of transport. But such national measures,” Dr Walter points out, “would be inconsistent with the idea of trans-European rail traffic”.
Knorr-Bremse, having been closely involved in the development of derailment detectors over many years and as part of their commitment to improving railway safety, is “very much opposed to the ERA recommendation,” Dr Walter says.
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