I think you're putting very little weight into the ability of government organizations like the NTSB or equivalent to determine root cause of a crash.
Just think of the situation with aircraft crashes. They have to deal with something that smeared into the ground at 400 miles an hour. And they're often still able to root cause with a high degree of confidence.
I have a feeling train crashes are trivial in comparison to root cause (with rare exception).
You either require (and train) your NTSB to be able to independently diagnose accidents (in which case they would be able to tell who fudged the records about the fake brake overhaul) or you rely on the manufacturer for the diagnosis. Which to me is a concerning conflict of interest, since they will invariably want to shift the blame to the operator of the vehicle. I'm sure they could in the most honest case, point to excursions outside of recommended operating conditions during the life of the train and say "see? Your operator has been consistently taking this turn ed 10 mph faster than recommended by the manufacturer. Warranty void".. worst case they fudge the records and you have no competent independent examiner to dispute that.
I think your point is fine, but I don't think we should say a root cause analysis of a rail accident is "trivial".
For example, the most recent serious report from the UK has 113 pages, and detail on technical (friction, braking etc) and organizational issues just like an aircraft accident report:
> I think you're putting very little weight into the ability of government organizations like the NTSB or equivalent to determine root cause of a crash
Not at all, I expect they will know every detail/fault/liability. In the meantime though, 'backlash'
- Manufacture's name is in the headlines
- That model of train may be 'grounded' or receive negative publicity
(We see this often in Air accidents (737 MAX, Ospreys in Japan)
Even if the manufacturer is determined to not be at fault, bad tastes linger..
- greater scrutiny
- % will hear of initial reports but miss later reports exonerating Manufacture
You either require (and train) your NTSB to be able to independently diagnose accidents (in which case they would be able to tell who fudged the records about the fake brake overhaul) or you rely on the manufacturer for the diagnosis. Which to me is a concerning conflict of interest, since they will invariably want to shift the blame to the operator of the vehicle. I'm sure they could in the most honest case, point to excursions outside of recommended operating conditions during the life of the train and say "see? Your operator has been consistently taking this turn ed 10 mph faster than recommended by the manufacturer. Warranty void".. worst case they fudge the records and you have no competent independent examiner to dispute that.