From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII X-Google-Thread: 115aec,732030daa45ab98a X-Google-Attributes: gid115aec,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,732030daa45ab98a X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-04-27 06:26:22 PST Message-ID: <3AE96E75.A3A82ED0@amsjv.com> Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 14:04:53 +0100 From: Philip Anderson Organization: Alenia Marconi Systems ISD X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (WinNT; I) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.realtime To: Colin_Paul_Gloster@ACM.org Subject: Re: European train deaths References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit NNTP-Posting-Host: cwmwkn0612.cwmbran.gecm.com X-Trace: 27 Apr 2001 13:57:08 GMT, cwmwkn0612.cwmbran.gecm.com Path: newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.icl.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!btnet-peer0!btnet-feed5!btnet!newreader.ukcore.bt.net!pull.gecm.com!cwmwkn0612.cwmbran.gecm.com Xref: newsfeed.google.com comp.lang.ada:6970 comp.realtime:2422 Date: 2001-04-27T14:04:53+01:00 List-Id: Colin Paul Gloster wrote: > > Something which occured to me only yesterday (unless I cleanly > forgot before) is that Ada and formal methods are used for > European train systems and so these may be involved in some > of the spate of fatal crashes over the last circa two years > in the U.K.; Norway; and elsewhere in the E.U.. At least one > in the U.K. had to do with a light signalling error if > memory serves correctly but I do not recall if this had > anything to do with software. It may be worthwhile to investigate this -- > would any of ye happen to remember if computers were involved in these > locomotive incidents? >From memory, the causes of the UK accidents have been identified as faulty track, badly-maintained signals or drivers going through red lights. I don't think software has been brought into any of these cases. The Norwegian train crash has been discussed on the comp.risk newgroup (which is a good place to look for problems attributable to software). some suggestions involved software, but that wasn't the official finding. -- hwyl/cheers, Philip Anderson Alenia Marconi Systems Cwmbr�n, Cymru/Wales