Shinkansen driver forgets glasses

[bikkuri bahn]

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110829p2a00m0na002000c.html

[Dani]

It's a little bit crazy, isn't it? Just for 0.1 in one eye....... 

[westfalen]

Not unusual to need 20-20 vision, health requirements for train drivers are pretty strict. I would imagine even more so for shinkansen drivers. I would have just kept going though and not said anything but who knows what disciplinary action would have been taken against him if a supervisor found him without them.

[scott]

With eyes that good, he probably just didn't realize he'd forgotten them.

[The_Ghan]

Well, that's screwed up their 8 second average delay time (2008), hasn't it?  The average delay for 2011 will probably now be 8.5 seconds, or something ... tut-tut !!!

 

On a serious note, this is the reason there are no accidents on the shinkansen.  I wonder if a Chinese, Australian, or American driver would fess up and halt an express service like that, or would they continue on and hope no-one noticed?

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[David]

Well, that's screwed up their 8 second average delay time (2008), hasn't it?  The average delay for 2011 will probably now be 8.5 seconds, or something ... tut-tut !!!

 

On a serious note, this is the reason there are no accidents on the shinkansen.  I wonder if a Chinese, Australian, or American driver would fess up and halt an express service like that, or would they continue on and hope no-one noticed?

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

 

More importantly, would a superviser actually do something given that they would be the one ordering a distruption? Here they chose to stop the train immediately to maintain safety at all times. In the US and upside down country he would likely have been directed to proceed to the next station and be relieved - safety, but only when it's not too far out of the way. In China of course the party member supervising him would have just radioed that Chinese 0.9 vision is really much better then western 1.0 vision so it was ok to proceed, and anyone saying otherwise is just jealous of China's greatness.

[scott]

Chinese 0.9 vision is really much better then western 1.0 vision so it was ok to proceed, and anyone saying otherwise is just jealous of China's greatness.

 

 

But seriously, folks--especially with in-cab signalling, he might have been (just) outside the guidelines, but I wouldn't say that it was at all unsafe.

 

I still think that since he only "confessed" after he was under way, he probably didn't even realize they were missing, since he could see just fine. I hope he wouldn't be punished for something like this. (On the other hand, if he had uncorrected vision like mine, he should be punished, but he never would have found the train to begin with.)

[Guest ___]

Well, that's screwed up their 8 second average delay time (2008), hasn't it?  The average delay for 2011 will probably now be 8.5 seconds, or something ... tut-tut !!!

 

On a serious note, this is the reason there are no accidents on the shinkansen.  I wonder if a Chinese, Australian, or American driver would fess up and halt an express service like that, or would they continue on and hope no-one noticed?

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

 

More importantly, would a superviser actually do something given that they would be the one ordering a distruption? Here they chose to stop the train immediately to maintain safety at all times. In the US and upside down country he would likely have been directed to proceed to the next station and be relieved - safety, but only when it's not too far out of the way. In China of course the party member supervising him would have just radioed that Chinese 0.9 vision is really much better then western 1.0 vision so it was ok to proceed, and anyone saying otherwise is just jealous of China's greatness.

 

And if he worked for NS, he would have been terminated on site (still in the train) then forced to pay the company back for time vested in his training.