Background
Interest in dead-man's controls increased with the introduction of electric streetcars and especially electrified rapid transit trains, though dead-man equipment was quite rare on US streetcars until comparatively recently. In conventional steam railroad trains, there was always a second person with the engineer, the fireman, who could almost always bring the train to a stop if necessary. For many decades this practice continued on electric and diesel locomotives, even though a single person could theoretically operate them.
With modern urban and suburban railway systems, the driver is typically alone in an enclosed cab. Automatic devices were already beginning to be deployed on newer installations of the New York City Subway system in the early 20th century. The Malbone Street Wreck on the Brooklyn Rapid Transit system in 1918, though not caused by driver incapacitation, did spur the need for universal deployment of such devices to halt trains in the event of the operator's disability. According to Manhattan borough historian Michael Miscione, there have been at least three instances where the dead-man's switch was used successfully – in 1927, 1940, and 2010.
Read more about this topic: Dead Man's Switch
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