On September 12, 2008, a Metrolink commuter train rammed into a freight locomotive in Chatsworth, California, killing 25 people and injuring 135. It was the worst train accident since 1993, according to Reuters. The driver of the train was texting at the time of the crash.

ALAN writes:

May I add the following regarding the list of mass transit accidents in my previous post?

It is a hallmark of cool, sophisticated Americans to boast about their talent for “multi-tasking,” i.e., their alleged ability to do two or more things at once.  At least two and possibly three of those transit accidents were caused by people engaged in “multi-tasking:”  Sending text messages or chattering at the same time they were being paid to operate a bus or train.

It is less significant that some people will do those things than that public transportation agencies or companies will permit them to do them. This, of course, is not a technical or scientific problem.  It is a moral problem, and what is obviously lacking is the will to enforce even minimal rules of common sense, safety, and accountability.  This is yet another sparkling example of the collapse of authority and hatred of responsibility whose consequences we see around us wherever we look.

Do Americans today even understand such things?  Or are they too mesmerized by the delusion of “multi-tasking” and their adolescent-minded fascination with trendy gadgets?

The myth of “multi-tasking” dies hard.  “Experts” and “studies” are now cited to substantiate what ordinary people with common sense have known for hundreds of years:  That trying to do two things at once is not a good idea.  (See Lord Chesterfield and William James quoted in “The Myth of Multitasking.”)

Credulity is a costly thing.  Those train operators believed such a thing as “multi-tasking” is possible, perhaps because they were taught or encouraged by their managers to believe it, and they paid a high price for believing it.

Americans today like to imagine they are smarter by far than Americans were a hundred years ago.  Are they?  That is news to me.

In 1914 the St. Louis Police Department took a dim view of “multi-tasking”. Distracting men who operate public transport vehicles is a nuisance and a bad habit, the Department said:

      “It is plain that motormen cannot give the attention necessary to their duties if they are drawn into conversation with passengers…..  A motorman’s duties are such that he cannot afford to give it other than his undivided attention…..  The motorman should direct all his attention to operating his car, for otherwise a serious accident may occur…..”  [ St. Louis Police Journal, Oct. 31, 1914, p. 4 ]

Imagine what they would say today about train operators and bus drivers who amuse themselves with cell phones and text messages.

This is progress:  All those neat little gadgets now make it possible for Americans to distract themselves and evade responsibility in more ways than could have been imagined a hundred years ago.

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