Re: British Accident 1sr Report Out - Thames Driver Not Being Blamed At This Point

[Eddie Oliver <eoliver@efs.mq.edu.au>]

Derick Wuen wrote:


> 
> The very fact that both public and private sector bureaucrats have coined
> the term SPAD is chilling enough... psychologically it downgrades the
> ultimate serious rail operation error into a four-letter acronym, about
> which statistics are kept but nothing else happens.... and S109 is not
> alone!

That. with respect, is not accurate comment at all. The term SPAD has
been in use in rail safety circles for an awfully long time, and was
"coined" entirely within the rail system (probably, in fact, in Britain
- although it is pretty universal in English-speaking countries which
use the term "danger" for a signal at stop - i.e. not the USA).

The fact that "bureaucrats" or the media might recently have picked up
the word simply reflects the number of British SPADs which have occurred
with a high public profile in Britain in the last decade or so.

After all,  how else would you abbreviate "signal passed at danger"?

Eddie Oliver