[SystemSafety] Spanish train crash

[Peter Bernard Ladkin]

On 7/29/13 1:40 PM, Chris Dale wrote:
> The (seemingly) media-led frenzy to find someone to blame is an obstacle to
> the prevention of future accidents.

Yes, but that word "seemingly" is important. I would say rather than it is enjoined by the legal 
system. In Germany, France and Spain, as well as some other countries, the legal system is required 
to ascertain if any crime has been committed and has priority in impounding evidence. The British 
investigators involved in the Concorde Paris crash complained publicly about how their work was 
hindered.

This has been perceived to hinder the technical investigation of aviation accidents so much that in 
2006 (or was it 2007?) the Flight Safety Foundation, the U.K. Royal Aeronautical Society, the French 
Academie Nationale de l'Air and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation issued a joint 
statement deploring the "criminalisation" of air accident investigations and listing the 
disadvantages (see Slide 31 of http://www.rvs.uni-bielefeld.de/Bieleschweig/ninth/LadkinB9Slides.pdf 
, which also includes examples from Taiwan, Brazil and Switzerland).

PBL

Prof. Peter Bernard Ladkin, Faculty of Technology, University of Bielefeld, 33594 Bielefeld, Germany
Tel+msg +49 (0)521 880 7319  www.rvs.uni-bielefeld.de