Steve Chapman on Wrong Lessons From the Metro-North Train Crash

The many costs of bad regulation.

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Professor Bop / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

In the aftermath of the deadly Metro-North train wreck in New York, there was ample fuel for outrage. The anger was directed at the driver for apparently taking a turn way too fast—and at the federal government for not mandating technology to make that impossible. It may seem criminal that the nation's railroads haven't already adopted the technology, but Steve Chapman says the case for this option is surprisingly weak.