Railhead Corp. tapped for Caltrain project

Caltrain has selected Railhead Corp. to install Railhead Vision Systems cameras on the front and back of Caltrain consists, in order to protect train engineers and provide valuable information for investigators after any death on the track.

So far in 2011, nine pedestrians have been hit and killed by Caltrains; 11 people on the tracks were killed in 2010.

Caltrain spokeswoman Christine Dunn said recent deaths were not the impetus for the project, but the cameras will aid in investigations. “It’s certainly going to give us more information about what the engineer sees and that includes the fatalities on the right of way,” she said. “It’s certainly going to give us more information about what the engineer sees and that includes the fatalities on the right of way,” she said.

Southern California’s Metrolink installed cameras on its trains two years ago, after a collision between a Metrolink train and Union Pacific train killed 25 people. Investigators found the train engineer was texting at the time of the crash. Railhead Corp was chosen to install cameras inside Metrolink train control rooms to monitor engineers; it installed outward-facing cameras at the same time.