Photo: Screenshot from video sent to Evening Standard by a reader
London is a big and intricate capital, and its transportation system is proportionately complicated.
The UK’s capital city’s residents were outraged this week as a video of a tram driver asleep at the controls was published on-line.
The video was made by an unnamed commuter who was on a train in the Croydon neighborhood, and he noticed that the tram did not leave when the lights became green.
He took a closer look at the cabin, and found the conductor apparently asleep. It was all happening during the morning rush hour, when everyone is trying to get to work as soon as possible. For the tram driver, things were in dreamland, as he dozed off for several minutes.
Commuters lost their patience and decided to bang on the window of his cabin to wake the conductor. As they told The Evening Standard, the train driver resumed his duties as if nothing else happened.
The train was traveling towards Wimbledon, and the intersection where the video was recorded was just three stops away from last November’s public transit accident that killed seven people and injured 51.
Londoners have the right to be outraged over public transit drivers falling asleep at the controls, especially since some of them have acknowledged, under cover of anonymity, that the “dead man’s switch” fails to stop these trains if their operators fall asleep.
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has told the media that he is furious about the latest incident, and has ordered an investigation that goes as far as the country’s Ministry of Transport.
The report noted that most of the passengers on the tram that had its operator fall asleep had decided to get out at the next stop out of fear for their safety.
You cannot blame anyone for getting off a tram after learning that it driver took a small nap at a traffic light. There’s always a risk that a driver might fall asleep behind the wheel, and situations like these show why autonomous vehicles make sense in today’s world.
The video was made by an unnamed commuter who was on a train in the Croydon neighborhood, and he noticed that the tram did not leave when the lights became green.
He took a closer look at the cabin, and found the conductor apparently asleep. It was all happening during the morning rush hour, when everyone is trying to get to work as soon as possible. For the tram driver, things were in dreamland, as he dozed off for several minutes.
Commuters lost their patience and decided to bang on the window of his cabin to wake the conductor. As they told The Evening Standard, the train driver resumed his duties as if nothing else happened.
The train was traveling towards Wimbledon, and the intersection where the video was recorded was just three stops away from last November’s public transit accident that killed seven people and injured 51.
Londoners have the right to be outraged over public transit drivers falling asleep at the controls, especially since some of them have acknowledged, under cover of anonymity, that the “dead man’s switch” fails to stop these trains if their operators fall asleep.
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has told the media that he is furious about the latest incident, and has ordered an investigation that goes as far as the country’s Ministry of Transport.
The report noted that most of the passengers on the tram that had its operator fall asleep had decided to get out at the next stop out of fear for their safety.
You cannot blame anyone for getting off a tram after learning that it driver took a small nap at a traffic light. There’s always a risk that a driver might fall asleep behind the wheel, and situations like these show why autonomous vehicles make sense in today’s world.
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