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    Toward a Moral Framework for Improving Rail Passenger Safety: Occupant Protection

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    Creator
    Garcia, Anne Leopold
    Advisor
    Douglas, William
    ORCID
    0000-0003-4642-3722
    Abstract
    The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is charged by the U.S. Congress to investigate significant passenger rail accidents to determine the probable cause and to issue safety recommendations aimed at preventing similar accidents in the future. These safety recommendations are NTSB’s primary product for improving transportation safety. The recipients of the safety recommendations, however, do not always accept and follow these recommendations. This creates a safety impasse.
     
    This thesis explores a means to move toward a resolution of this safety impasse, through a moral framework for improving passenger rail safety. The impact of the passenger safety impasse is traced to illustrate the need to address and resolve the safety impasse problem.
     
    To that end, a process for expanding the current post-accident investigation process for improving passenger rail transportation safety beyond the primary, evidence-based product of safety recommendations is provided. A new type of analysis, that is a second duty-based analysis within a moral framework, is developed.
     
    Within the duty-based analysis, the need to ensure safety on public transportation systems is posited as a Kantian Categorical Safety Imperative. From this a requirement is determined: that rail transportation safety measures, whether developed through research and analysis, or through the safety recommendation process, are equitably translated to rail applications that achieve the same safety goals for all people, across all sectors of society, regardless of socio-economic and demographic factors. This is posited as the Translational Categorical Safety Imperative for transportation, which is, to identify and address transportation safety disparities and ensure future transportation safety equity for all.
     
    Description
    D.L.S.
    Permanent Link
    http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1059499
    Date Published
    2020
    Subject
    Categorical Safety Imperative; Normative Ethics; Passenger Railroad Safety; Safety Impasse; Translational Safety Imperative; Transportation Safety; Ethics; Psychology; Transportation -- Planning; Ethics; Psychology; Transportation;
    Type
    thesis
    Embargo Lift Date
    2022-06-30
    Publisher
    Georgetown University
    Extent
    73 leaves
    Collections
    • Liberal Studies Theses and Dissertations
    Metadata
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    Georgetown University Seal
    ©2009 - 2022 Georgetown University Library
    37th & O Streets NW
    Washington DC 20057-1174
    202.687.7385
    digitalscholarship@georgetown.edu
    Accessibility