Amtrak announced this week it will install cameras in its locomotive cabs to record train engineers, a move likely triggered by the Philadelphia derailment that killed eight people earlier this month.
The deadly accident injured more than 200 and left investigators questioning engineer Brandon Bostian as to what happened inside the cab.
Bostian suffered a head injury during the accident and told investigators he could not recall what happened
leading up to the derailment, Fox News reported. The Northeast Regional train 188 accelerated to 106 miles per hour one minute prior to entering a curve with a 55-mph speed limit when it went off the tracks.
The cameras will be installed in 70 new locomotives serving the northeast region, including Washington, New York, and Boston.
Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman told Fox most trains will have cameras before next year.
According to The New York Times, it’s a $1.4 million project.
“I don’t think they’re jumping up and down with joy," Boardman told The Times of union workers' likely reaction to the installation of cameras.
The National Transportation Safety Board has been lobbying the use of inward-facing audio and video recorders in train cabs to the Federal Railroad Administration for five years, according to Fox.
Boardman said Amtrak supports revisions to the standards for cameras used in rail cars.
“We've been supporting it all the way along,” he said. “It's just a matter of working out some of those details . . . There may be some adjustments we have to make later down the road, but I think it's time to do it, and I'm doing it.”
Since the crash, Amtrak has also announced it will install automatic stops before the end of the year so trains moving at high speeds will have to slow down and come to a halt at certain places.
“Although we approve of Amtrak's belated decision to install a video camera inside the cab of the locomotive, the question remains, 'Why wasn't this done much earlier?” Robert Mongeluzzi, a Philadelphia attorney representing 10 passengers on the train, posited to Fox.