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Comment by t0mas88 | Hacker News Reader

> 3. The Iryo train(Frecciarossa 1000), that caused the accident, was manufactured in 2022 and it passed a technical inspection just 4 days ago.

The inspection is a risk factor. There is data from the aviation industry for example that engine incidents on an engine that is certified for some thousands of hours of operation between inspection happen disproportionally in the first 100 hours (and then again at the end of the inspection interval). The inspection itself is an intervention that causes incidents.

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Iatrogenesis is everywhere! Medicine, engineering, economics, politics, etc.

I didn’t know this concept had a name, so thanks for that. Now I have a fancy sounding term to tell my manager why I won’t touch that ugly EnterpriseJavaBeans codebase and that we need to rewrite it from scratch.

That's not what Iatrogenesis means, though ...

Unless you plan to give medicine to your code.

“That’s not what Bug means though, unless you plan to put literal insects inside your computer”

Iatro- means medicine ...

Check a dictionary or something.

“Bug” is derived from “bugge”, which means “scarecrow or goblin”. Check a dictionary or something.

I never said your analogy was valid, but the opposite.

Read carefully.

The analogy is valid. Words originally used for one purpose can be used to describe analogous situations outside of the original definition. Read...anything.

Train inspections are far less intrusive. Wheel wear can be measured with calipers while standing beside the train. Software tests are physically null, except for alarms sounding. Brakeline tests can be verified without adding gauges; in many cases the braking mechanisms are externally observable.

Plane controls systems all live behind thin, deformable metal or plastic covers.

Trains aren't perfect, obv, but most train accidents reduce to "A human on the tracks fucked up". Drivers trying to maintain schedules by speeding, or vehicles or humans standing on rails where they had no business being (dodging crossing guards, suicide, etc).

Came here to say. I don’t know enough about their inspection guidelines and how intrusive it is on the train’s systems, but anytime you do something outside the norm (including inspections) you introduce a variable that may have played a part.

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