Under routine operations, the human operator's job is to close the doors, put the automatic system in operation and be alert for emergencies in which it is necessary to take manual control. The National Transportation Safety Board found evidence that the operator of the moving train in Washington, who was killed in the crash, tried to apply an emergency brake before impact.
Since the crash, the Washington system has been running under the control of its human operators as investigators try to determine what may have gone wrong with its computerized systems.
MTA officials said that while the Baltimore system uses train operation and collision prevention equipment made by different manufacturers than Washington's, Wiedefeld decided to conduct the integrity tests out of an abundance of caution.
