Category Archives: Disaster Preparedness

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Could Train Control Technology Have Prevented the Amtrak Derailment?

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An Amtrak train that derailed on May 12, traveling more than 100 miles per hour on a known dangerous curve, has an unfortunate similarity to the Spuyten Dyvil crash in December 2013. In that incident, a Metro North train traveling at 82 miles per hour derailed on a treacherous curve, traveling at nearly three times the allowed speed.

Four passengers died in the Spuyten Dyvil derailment.

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Operator fatigue was deemed to be the cause for that accident. This most recent crash killed at least eight people and eight are listed in critical condition. In both cases, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) experts contend that a safety measure called “positive train control” (PTC) could have prevented the disasters.

Robert Sumwalt, a member of the NTSB, explained during a press conference on Wednesday that Amtrak already has a system in place called the Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System (ACES), which is installed throughout most of the Northeast Corridor. “However, it is not installed where the accident occurred,” Sumwalt said. “That type of a system, we call it a positive train control system, is designed to enforce the civil speed, to keep the train below its maximum speed. We have called for positive train control for many years, it’s on our most wanted list. Congress has mandated that it be installed by the end of this year.”

Sumwalt continued, “Based on what we know right now, we feel that, had such a system been installed in this section of track, this accident would not have occurred.”

He said that a thorough walk-through of the accident site was conducted yesterday and that investigators will be looking into the track, the train control signal system and the operations of the train. “Our mission is to not only find out what happened, but why it happened to prevent it from happening again,” he said.

The looming question is why this safety measure was not in place, even though PTC has been called for since a collision in Chatsworth, California killed 25 people. The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 mandates that PTC for passenger and freight trains be operational by the end of 2015.

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But because of high costs and the complexity of the system, Congress has been considering an extension until 2020.

According to the NTSB website:

In the aftermath of the Chatsworth tragedy, Congress enacted the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008. The Act requires each Class 1 rail carrier and each provider of regularly-scheduled intercity or commuter rail passenger service to implement a PTC system by Dec.

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31, 2015. Progress is being made toward this lifesaving goal. Metrolink became the first commuter rail system to implement PTC, when it began a revenue service demonstration on the BNSF Railway. This demonstration project is a step in the right direction, and Metrolink reports it will implement PTC fully throughout its entire system before the Congressionally-mandated deadline.

It has been more than 45 years since the NTSB first recommended the forerunner to PTC. In the meantime, more PTC-preventable collisions and derailments occur, more lives are lost, and more people sustain injuries that change their lives forever.
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Yet there is still doubt when PTC systems will be implemented nationwide as required by law.

Each death, each injury, and each accident that PTC could have prevented, testifies to the vital importance of implementing PTC now.

Oil Transportation by Rail or Pipeline? A Nation Vacillates

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Thanks to some high-profile derailments over the past several months, the zeitgeist is set against the transportation of crude oil by rail.

The latest salvo to appear in a major media outlet is Jon Bowermaster’s Op-Doc “A Danger on the Rails,” appearing in the New York Times on April 21. Bowermaster focuses on oil cars rolling along the Hudson River, but his critiques of these trains are applicable to the national debate as well.

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They are, by now, predictable: the transports are derided as “bomb trains,” and they’re creeping past schools, hospitals, and major urban centers (even within a few miles of Manhattan!).

The production values are good, but Bowermaster ventures deep into NIMBY-ism. He’s not alone: when it comes to the transportation of oil, Americans want it done quickly and cheaply so the economy can keep humming along. Just make sure it’s routed somewhere else.

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Fear of oil trains is nearing fever pitch, but the best alternative—pipelines—earn emotionally charged reactions as well. Take Politico’s thorough investigation of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, also published on April 21. Despite the great journalism it contains, editors gave it the inflammatory title “‘Pipelines Blow Up and People Die.’” The authors write:

“Oil and gas companies like to assure the public that pipelines are a safer way to ship their products than railroads or trucks. But government data makes clear there is hardly reason to celebrate.

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Last year, more than 700 pipeline failures killed 19 people, injured 97 and caused more than $300 million in damage. Two of the past five years have been the worst for combined pipeline-related deaths and injuries since 2000.”

So much for an easy decision between rail and pipeline.

If the United States is going to be a leading producer and exporter of oil and gas, we have to transport it from the interior to our ports. And as domestic production increases, the number of accidents will almost certainly increase. If we cast a risk manager’s eye on the situation, where should we invest our money?

The data on rail transportation accidents makes a strong case for pipelines. Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post put it succinctly in his February article: “It’s a Lot Riskier to Move Oil by Train Instead of Pipeline.” His charts tell the story:

Oil trains clearly have more accidents than pipelines, and in a bad year (like 2013) the amount of oil they spill can dwarf that of pipeline accidents. Oil trains have another huge risk: security. As Bowermaster noted in his documentary, these combustible trains are essentially unguarded and travel through populated areas. A determined terrorist could do a lot of damage with that situation. Pipelines, on the other hand, are buried: out of sight and out of mind.

An April 6 article in Businessweek helps us visualize the magnitude of the risk from rail shipments. Check out the growth since 2010:

While imperfect, pipelines can mitigate much of this risk that’s now moving along the nation’s rails.

Rail transport won’t go away, of course. It’s easily scalable to demand and thus more attractive than building thousands of miles of pipeline that could, in the future, be underutilized. What’s best is a two-pronged approach: pipelines can reduce risk in the most heavily trafficked corridors, and new rail standards can improve the safety of oil trains.

To read more about improving safety requirements for oil trains, see Risk Management Magazine.

Data Protection in the Cloud: Planning for Data Loss and Downtime

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As we brace for another season of tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fires, earthquakes and floods, all businesses should be asking, “Is our data protected should disaster strike?” Or more simply, “What happens if we lose our data?”

Sadly, despite the fact that significant portions of the country are at risk for severe weather and other natural disasters, not all businesses are thinking pragmatically about catastrophic data loss and downtime, which can lead to staggering financial losses and impact productivity, reputation, regulatory compliance, and ultimately the bottom line.

According to a global data protection study released in December, enterprises are losing as much as .

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7 trillion annually through data loss and unplanned downtime. Data loss is up 400% since 2012, and two-thirds of the 3,300 organizations surveyed had experienced data loss in the last 12 months. Researchers found that although a high percentage of organizations had disaster recovery plans in place, surprisingly few had implemented data protection practices and fewer than half employed remote, cloud-based data protection. Seventy-one percent of organizations were not fully confident in their ability to recover after a disruption.

If your business is unprepared for a disaster, then act now to improve your resilience and mitigate risk. Plan for natural catastrophes and man-made disasters alike (such as theft, hardware failure, human error, system failure, computer viruses, power failure and accidental deletion).

Disaster preparedness begins with a business continuity plan. This serves as your playbook for staying in business following a disaster and it enables you to restore operations and communications systematically while helping minimize risk. Ask your IT department to incorporate the steps needed to safeguard your IT infrastructure from disaster, including backup and recovery measures.  In today’s highly-regulated environment, having a secure backup and recovery solution that meets the stringent requirements defined by Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, HIPAA, FISMA, PCI, ISO and other regulatory standards is expected.

During this process, develop a clear understanding of where the cloud fits in and how it can help save time, money and resources.

Businesses are increasingly backing up their data and apps in a secure, off-site cloud environment (not in the physical office), because the cloud is faster than other options and typically offers the most protection at the lowest cost.

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Recovery in the cloud requires no travel and no extra hardware, and it offers extreme levels of reliability.

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Should disaster occur, a cloud solution allows the continuously backed up systems to be restored as virtual machines. All of the cloud’s benefits speak to why highly regulated businesses protecting sensitive data are finding that virtualization technologies make it simpler to comply with stringent security and compliance regulations governing electronic storage and access to data.

Here are seven steps to help businesses plan for data loss and downtime:

  1. Identify the risks. List and categorize all natural and man-made threats and their impact on various systems. Ask what would it take to knock out our entire network and how much unplanned downtime can our business sustain?
  2. Inventory IT assets. Which are most critical to maintaining business continuity? What’s our tolerance for loss of those assets? The cost of the response should be balanced against your tolerance for system downtime.
  3. Define goals. In a worst case scenario, how long can our business shut down? Does it need to recover off-site? Define goals in terms of RPO (Recovery Point Objective, “How much data can we lose?”) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective, “How long can we be down?”).
  4. Develop a plan. Include “IT Assets Inventory,” data protection procedures and contingency plans, notification/activation schedules, a list of roles and responsibilities, a list of resource requirements, and details about training provisions. Good plans include maintenance and backup/recovery testing schedules.
  5. Understand the cloud’s benefits. Virtualization technologies make backup and disaster recovery vastly faster, cheaper and easier. The combination of the cloud and the right backup and disaster recovery solution allows for continuous data protection (so the backups always run 24/7/365) as well as consistent compliance and security.
  6. Implement the plan. If executives understand clearly the consequences of system disruptions, you will win their support and funding for contingency policies.
  7. Test the plan. Continuous testing and plan updating helps ensure business survival.

Security Technology: Reducing Risk for Law Enforcement

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Nowhere is the work environment more unpredictable than on the front line. Front line employees, whether they work in customer service or high-level security, are constantly exposed to the biggest element of risk—the human element. Working in the field exposes employees to a variety of unpredictable factors, interacting with the public and operating in different environments, making it difficult to predict risks and properly protect employees from external threats.

This is particularly true in law enforcement and security industries, with “police officer” being named as one of America’s most dangerous jobs. It’s no wonder organizations (both public and private sector) are looking for solutions, especially when considering what is at risk. Obviously, employee safety is of paramount concern to any organization and should always be top priority, but there are other elements to consider. Attacks on employees or property can result in huge legal costs, and without physical evidence, it can be hard to recoup this loss. Businesses must also consider the risk to their public image.

To help fight crime and reduce the risks to their front line workers, many government law enforcement agencies and private security organizations are using technology solutions. These solutions, such as advanced security recordings and tracking devices, can act as deterrents. While providing law enforcement officers with more protection, they also help collect irrefutable evidence to protect the company from a legal perspective.

Personal security cameras

These personal security cameras have been adopted by numerous law enforcement agencies around the world, including the City of Clare Police Department in Michigan. The body-worn cameras are attached to the police officer’s uniform—recording footage and displaying a live feed on their front-facing screen. This works in two ways, by providing reliable video evidence from the officer’s perspective of the crime scene and also acting as a deterrent. This approach of alerting members of the public to the fact that they’re being recorded has been shown to reduce the occurrence of criminal activity.

GPS

While GPS systems have existed for a long time, more and more law enforcement agencies are taking full advantage of their benefits—particularly when it comes to pursuing vehicles. Tested with police departments in Arizona and Florida, GPS ‘darts’ are currently in development to reduce the risk to police officers and the general public posed by high speed traffic pursuits. The darts are fired using compressed air and discreetly attach to the vehicle being chased. This means the officer in pursuit can track the vehicle remotely, without the need to initiate a chase at dangerous speeds.

Drones

Perhaps the most controversial of these technologies, drone surveillance has been a hot topic in recent news. While opposition to their use is primarily in relation to privacy or military usage, for law enforcement they provide an affordable and convenient alternative to police helicopters. These small portable flying police drones are equipped with HD surveillance cameras, providing a birds-eye view of crime scenes or events. This live video feed can be monitored and recorded remotely, allowing officers to survey any danger in the area before making a physical appearance. Like body worn cameras, the video footage can also serve as valuable evidence in court. The future of drone technologies being adopted by police departments remains up in the air, however, as some public opposition looks to restrict their usage.

Gunshot detection

Possibly the most innovative of these technologies, gunfire locators or gunshot detection systems have proven to be extremely valuable in protecting front line workers and increasing response time in high gun crime areas. Already used in many cities throughout the United States, these systems use numerous super sensitive microphones (dispersed through a geographic area and connected to a central processor) to immediately alert police to the exact location, and even direction, of gunshots fired in the area.

While some of these technologies have yet to reach their potential, their benefits suggest it won’t be long before they’re fully integrated into police and security industries—and seeing widespread use around the world. While tracking devices and security cameras are nothing new, their improvement and innovative applications in recent years have made them invaluable. From collecting evidence to improving safety for front line workers, these high-tech security solutions effectively reduce risks faced by organizations operating in the sector.