Officials with Amtrak recently announced that the company will install video surveillance cameras inside its locomotive cabs to record actions and behaviors of train engineers. Safety advocates have long lobbied the government and the railroad industry for cab cameras in an effort to better monitor and manage problems that pose accident risks.

The move was prompted by the May 12 derailment of Amtrak's Northeast Regional train 188, which accelerated to a speed of 106-miles per hour just before entering a curve where it derailed in Pennsylvania. The speed limit for trains at the curve is 50 miles per hour, which means the train was traveling at twice the lawful speed. The crash killed eight people and injured upward of 200 more.

The National Transportation Safety Board launched an investigation into whether engineer Brandon Bostian may have been using his mobile in the moments before the crash. Bostian maintains that his mobile phone was secured in a bag at the time and that he has no recollection of the incident.

Since the late 1990s, NTSB officials have been calling for the Federal Railroad Administration to require that all passenger and freight train cabs be equipped with audio recorders. About five years ago, they upped that recommendation, calling for inward-facing sound and video recorders.

"The information that recorders can provide to ensure that crews are consistently operating trains safely is just too valuable to ignore," NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart wrote to Amtrak President and CEO Joseph H. Boardman. The letter went on to list multiple incidents in which cameras assisted accident investigators.

Plans call for installing cameras in 70 new Amtrak locomotives used to power all Northeast Regional and long-distance trains between Washington, New York and Boston, as well as Keystone Service between New York, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania by spring 2016. Company officials still are developing plans for outfitting the remainder of its 300 locomotives nationwide with cameras.

We here at Rail Justice support any efforts to better protect the safety of railway employees and passengers. If you suffer an injury while working or riding on a train, report the incident, get medical treatment and call 888-519-RAIL to speak with a railroad injury attorney with Jacksonville's Rail Justice today.