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Seconds from Disaster
2005 · TV series · documentary · 45 min episodes · 7 seasons
Seconds from Disaster is a US/UK-produced documentary television programme that investigates historically relevant man-made and natural disasters of the 20th century. Each episode aims to explain a single incidental by analyzing the causes and circumstances that ultimately effected the disaster. The program uses re-enactments, interviews, testimonies, and CGI to analyze the sequence of events second-by-second for the audience. Narrators for the show are Ashton Smith, Richard Vaughan and Peter Guinness.
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5 comments on Hacker News
I don't think it is currently available on streaming or disc, but if it ever becomes available again the TV series "Seconds from Disaster" [1] would be a good choice. It is excellent.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seconds_from_Disaster
Read some NTSB reports for dry reports
Or CSB videos on YT
Or some TV shows like Seconds from Disaster or that Air crash one.
or listen to industrial engineers when they do their simulations and Fault trees and HAZOP shenanigans
there are a lot of publications and books and even university courses about how to study the functional safety of systems.
However, all of these dry "remedies, suggestions, costs" only make sense when you can have the "stump speech" about what you want. You need to discuss what industries you want, and what risks do you accept. when you study a risk, you can avoid it (no go), transfer it (mostly to insurance companies), mitigate it (with these new practices and technical solutions you called for, to reduce frequency and/or impact) or accept it (all green).
The articles underlines how the current risk of derailment was known and accepted by the Department of Transportation. There was nothing more to do technologically, if the risk was accepted as it was.
If you want a remedy or suggestions, go see the government and the companies to tell them chemicals plumes aren't acceptable when they happen every few years. Technical solutions will come, if they want to continue to operate trains but more safely.
As someone who has watched a lot of episodes of "Air Disasters" (AKA "Mayday", "Air Emergency", or "Air Crash Investigations" in various places) [1], The Weather Channel's "Why Planes Crash" [2], and National Geographic's "Seconds from Disaster" [3] which had a few episodes involving air disasters, getting me on a 737 Max after they release a fix wouldn't require any more force or involve any more kicking and screaming and threats of violence than getting me on any other modern airliner.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayday_(Canadian_TV_series)
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Planes_Crash
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seconds_from_Disaster
After watching Seconds from Disaster and Air Crash Investigation for many years, USCSB videos are now my favorite accident investigation documentaries.
While I can't speak specifically to the Horizon, almost every major disaster is the result of multiple major events chained together.
To illustrate this point I recommend watching the documentaries Mayday, Air crash investigation, and Seconds from disaster.