After how many miles?...


New smart motorway plans being scrapped
wrote:

The building of all new smart motorways is being cancelled over cost and safety concerns...

... Smart motorways are a stretch of road where technology is used to regulate traffic flow and ease congestion.

They also use the hard shoulder as an extra lane of traffic, which critics claim has led to road deaths...

The variable speed control to regulate the traffic flow more often than not works well.

The problem appears to be the inevitable neglect and financial skimping (or profiteering?) of the 'safety' features...

Yet another example of how "active" safety is by default overly dangerous. Instead, the passive safety of being able to physically and immediately escape the danger area of a motorway (freeway) is by far the safer of all options!


Stay safe folks!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Incredible!

And damning:


Air France and Airbus cleared over fatal 2009 Rio-Paris crash
wrote:

A French court has cleared Air France and Airbus of charges of involuntary manslaughter over a deadly crash in June 2009 which killed all 228 people on board...

... Families of the victims reacted angrily to the acquittal...

... It was the first trial for corporate involuntary manslaughter to be held in France. Air France and Airbus had always denied the charges...

... When the air-speed sensors froze and gave false readings, the pilots failed to follow correct procedure and lost control of the plane, which plunged into the ocean.

The judge said there had been several acts of negligence by both companies, but that there was not enough certainty to hold Airbus and Air France liable for the crash...

My recollection of that crash was that the captain was too long away from the cockpit and that the two remaining pilots were too ill-trained/inexperienced to fly in those conditions. Also, freezing of the airspeed probes was well known, with a fix, yet that fix wasn't being fitted (costs?)...

The airspeed probes (pitot tubes) fixes were rushed out soon afterwards.


Incredible?...

Only to be 'fixed' only after disaster?


Fly safe?...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Only to be 'fixed' only after disaster?

Lessons paid for in blood.

This has to go here.

At least one dead, 5 injured in New York parking structure collapse as search continues for survivors.

....One person was pronounced dead on the scene, four more were taken to area hospitals with injuries and a sixth individual who was hurt declined medical treatment, New York City Fire Department chief of fire operations John Esposito said.

He described all six as workers who were in the parking structure when it collapsed.

"This was an extremely dangerous situation for our firefighters," he told a late-afternoon news briefing.

Chief Esposito said firefighters who were ordered out of the unstable structure had still been inside conducting searches as "the building was continuing to collapse".,,,,,


....The New York City Department of Buildings' online records showed that the structure, at the site of the collapse, had been cited for 45 violations, including 25 since 2003, many related to its elevators.

One 2003 filing noted that "ceiling slab cracks exist" as well as "defective concrete with exposed rear cracks".

It said a $US800 ($1,188) penalty had been paid for the violation.....

It seems that it's cheaper to pay fines than carry out repairs.

It had to happen, but something should've been done much earlier.

Manhattan DA investigating deadly parking garage collapse.

This is no way to run a caring health service:


Priory Group whistleblowers 'concerned for patient safety'
wrote:

... The whistleblowers claim they felt pressure to cut costs and fill beds.

The Priory Group, which receives more than £600m of public money each year, is the biggest single private provider of mental health services to the NHS.

The company denies the claims...

... found it difficult to recruit or retain staff, due to poor pay and conditions.

They believe this resulted in patients being placed on wards that did not have staff equipped with the right skills to handle their conditions...

... staff turnover was "extremely high at 40%" and in some services this was "having an impact on the quality and safety of care"...

... They believed the sale of the company in 2021 to private investors led to a focus on "ever-tighter profit margins and requirements".

That, they said, had "taken a toll on patient care and staff morale" as senior leaders "put pressure on hospitals for more admissions and cost savings".

Harriet Kelly, who worked for two years as an HCA at another Priory-run hospital, also described a "toxic" working environment where senior managers pressured nurses...

... [A watchdog report] also found the mechanism for staff to raise their concerns "was not working as it should be"...

Extra profits at the cost of care and health?...

Stay healthy folks!!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Continuing on from the N.Y.C. carpark collapse.

NYC closes number of parking garages over substantial structural issues.

Continuing on from the N.Y.C. carpark collapse.

NYC closes number of parking garages over substantial structural issues.

Inspectors got off fat rear ends and started doing their job. When will the supervisors who allowed the sitting be sacked?

Pollute with deadly profitable impunity?


Father challenges BP at meeting after son's death
wrote:

... by gas-flaring from BP's oil fields in Iraq - told the company that "cancer is so common it's like the flu"...

... BP said it offered condolences to the family...

... And the world be damned.
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

The U.S. rail companies won't like a lot of this, though they do agree with some of it.

Expanded rail safety bill secures key backers ahead of Senate vote.

Senators unveiled an expanded railroad safety bill Monday ahead of a key vote this week, securing support from the Democratic chairwoman of the Commerce Committee and several Republicans, who pledged to take action after February’s train derailment and chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio.

The proposal builds on legislation spearheaded by Sens. J.D. Vance (R) and Sherrod Brown (D) of Ohio. It would set standards for trackside safety detectors, apply special safety rules to trains carrying the gas released in East Palestine and significantly increase the maximum fines railroads could face for violating federal rules......

Quite the combination:


Ryanair signs $40bn deal for 300 Boeing aircraft
wrote:

Ryanair has agreed a $40bn (£31bn) deal with Boeing that will see it purchase up to 300 new aircraft over the next decade.

Half of the 737-MAX-10 order has been described as firm, with the remaining being options...

... have 228 seats...

... "These new, fuel efficient ... aircraft offer 21% more seats, burn 20% less fuel...

Ouch!

How can you cram 228 seats into a 1960's Boeing 737?!!

How do you safely get all those people off when inevitably the occasion occurs?...


Fly safe?
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

How do you safely get all those people off when inevitably the occasion occurs?...

No overhead bins so they actually run when told to?

How can you cram 228 seats into a 1960's Boeing 737?!!

As you walk down the gantry they spray you with vegetable oil so they can pack you tightly into the flying sardine can...

How do you safely get all those people off when inevitably the occasion occurs?..

Not going to happen, some will have to "go down with the ship."

It's quite simple (only it isn't) you insert more fuselage sections before and after the wings, modify the wing-root somewhat, modify the main spar, modify the fuselage centre section, put on bigger engines, and a myriad of other changes, use lots of composites to reduce the weight.
Now, could one do this to an existing B737 first generation? Short answer "NO".
OK, then how about a "Classic" ? Short answer "NO"
Oh dear, how about an NG then? Short answer "Not really".
Boeing, driven by their customers (led by a couple of US regional airlines, decided not to go for a new aircraft type certificate but to do a massive iteration on the existing one because it would be cheaper. Was it? Not really if all the costs of compensation, loss of production, re-engineering at are taken into account.

(I honestly think they should have gone for a mini-B757 which would have been so much easier to do, but those US single-type airlines would have been very unhappy.)

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

So...

To get this 'straight'...

With the Boeing "One Certification" ruse, we have airlines hiring the aeronautical equivalent of taxi drivers, who are used to carrying 3 or 4 passengers, instead now immediately piloting high speed passenger trains of hundreds of passengers all on their same one Hackney Cab license?!...

No training/experience needed (deadly bad puns go off the rails!)...

Madness??


Fly safe??
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Ah, the capital investment trap. As a pilot can only be current on one type at a time what does a manager do?

Well, you could sell every plane you have on Friday, have hundreds of a different type plane delivered Monday and retrain your entire labor force over the weekend ...

You could demand the manufacturer build new planes that don't need a new type rating ...

Give it a decade or two and you will be writing the exact same thing about airbus.

Certification, it is broken. Standardization, does not exist. Government rules from the 1950's. Not enough money for regulators. Gosh, what did Reagan do to PATCO?

The certification process in the US is worse than broken, it is dangerously broken.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Another example of "client care" being 'incompatible' with the inevitable greed for profit?


Hospital boss claims unfair dismissal after chairman 'bullied' her
wrote:

A former NHS chief executive is suing her employer, saying she was "bullied, harassed, intimidated and undermined" by the hospital trust's chairman...

... She has also accused the chairman of putting finance above patient safety.

In a statement, the trust said it denied all the allegations...

... accountant - sought to "intervene and influence, and ultimately to control, many operational matters" beyond the scope of his job...

... [Trust's Chairman] putting finance above patient safety...

... The trust responded to her concerns, Dr Gilby claims, by proposing that she be seconded to a senior advisory role within NHS England on the condition she withdrew her allegations...

How many other cases are there of this?...

Stay healthy!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

How many other cases are there of this?...

Same answer as: What is the largest integer?

Sadly, no surprise here:


No one has accepted real responsibility for the East Palestine {USA} disaster
wrote:

There is still a disturbing chemical odor three months later – yet we’re fighting for accountability from Norfolk Southern, the Ohio governor and the CDC

When a Norfolk Southern train derailed – spilling over 116,000 gallons of toxic petrochemicals, much of which ignited...

... three long months later my family and I would still be displaced and living in a hotel. Nor could I have imagined that we would be fighting tooth and nail for accountability from Norfolk Southern, pushing to get Mike DeWine, the Ohio Governor, to declare a state of emergency and desperately trying to get the CDC to provide clear guidelines for testing and monitoring...

... Since the train derailment, an alarming number of residents have reported lung scarring, rashes, headaches, nausea, nosebleeds, disorientation, burning eyes, numbness and more. Testing is finding what may be elevated levels of benzene and vinyl chloride in residents’ bodies...

... Independent testing also shows high levels of petrochemicals and dioxins in and around our homes. We are being ignored and gaslit. The CDC has kept an extremely low profile. Governor DeWine refuses to speak with us...

... Norfolk Southern seems to have chosen an easier route, such as donating money to local schools. I understand there is a plan for an improved town park brought to us by Norfolk Southern. While these contributions are appreciated, we know they are much more affordable than what we really need – addressing the true, long-term health and economic impacts that we face now and well into the future. Yes, a new city park makes a nice photo opportunity for the company, but what good is a park if we’re all too sick to go there?...

Something needs to change to avoid repeated repeats of this deadly scenario from the big corporates...

Stay safe?...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)