Technology can't replace a comprehensive understanding and knowledge of operating standards and practices. Any suggestion that hardware alterations can magically make incompetent operators safe is founded on blind faith in technology against all empirica reality. To put it another way, if somebody doesn't know how to maintain one water glass in good order, why should they do better with two to keep track of? dave

AMEN! Nothing is fool or mistake proof. If someone chooses to be careless or neglectful, all the regs in the world are useless.

On the steam side, traditional skills and experience are obviously important safety elements, but who has these skills today? A few, perhaps, in full time daily operations such as in Colorado or Pennsylvania. Consider the Union Pacific steam crew. They operate the largest engines in the country, for large public crowds, and under great media attention. Their risk exposure is extraordinary, but how many hours per year of actual steam operating time do they experience? How do they develop the traditional safety sense? I expect they can not, well intentioned as they are. Procedures and safety appliances must be changed to reflect, not only modern increased expectations of personal safety, but the change in crew skills.Crewmen of old operated steam 60 hours a week, every week, for years. They also had a structured environment encompassing hundreds of other crewmen operating similar equipment and a supervisory structure to collect and distribute safety notices. No matter how skilled in welding or machine repair, a contemporary steam operator experiencing perhaps a seasonal 20 hours per week is not going to achieve the same powers of observation and safety. Modern technology can improve this skills gap.