Is Fear the Best Teacher?

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VentureForth

Engineer
Joined
Jan 23, 2007
Messages
6,430
Location
West Melbourne, FL
That's quite smart and also absolutely terrifying. If I were training for that job and found out that that was part of it, I think I would look for a different job. Maybe I'm just a coward, though.
 
So long as it's safely conducted, I think there is value in letting the maintenance crew understand that what they are working on in a static environment isn't static out in real life - far from it.

On that note, though, you can't tie a mechanic to the nose of an airplane for him to appreciate his job.
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Well, at least they were in a "trench," albeit one meter away from the tracks. At least they wouldn't be sucked in by the vacuum votex of the train passing by. Similar (I guess) to being in such a trench during a tornado. Hopefully, their hard hats had straps so they wouldn't fly off as the train passes. But, yes, this is what the Japanese do to emphasize the need for absolute safety and attention to detail when doing track maintenance. The Shinkansen is one of the safest train systems there is. I don't think there has been even one fatality in the history of its operation. And that's saying something, considering how earthquake prone Japan is. The system was built with earthquakes in mind. It has features that will automatically shut down any train that may be heading towards an area undergoing seismic activity.

I know it seems scary to some, but I also see the reasoning behind their doing it. They want their workers to take extra special care, because they understand the consequences of not doing so.
 
So long as it's safely conducted, I think there is value in letting the maintenance crew understand that what they are working on in a static environment isn't static out in real life - far from it.

On that note, though, you can't tie a mechanic to the nose of an airplane for him to appreciate his job.
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Reminds me of the scene in "Pushing Tin" where the air traffic controllers go out on the runway behind a "heavy" to experience wake turbulence.
 
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