This seems to happen fairly often (note the emphasis); things that actually happen often are not on the news (because https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_values

This seems to happen fairly often (note the emphasis); things that actually happen often are not on the news (because https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_values https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_values ). From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_accidents_(2010%E2%80%93present) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_accidents_(2010%E... : I have counted about 170 fatalities 2010-2016 for the whole of EU, about half of which (81) is from the 24 July 2013, Santiago de Compostela derailment, about another quarter is "train hits car after driver went around the barriers," and there seem to be significant numbers of sabotage (about 20 fatalities). In that, I have counted only 5 train-to-train crashes (Buizingen, Szczekociny, Sloterdijk, Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Bad Aibling). See also this Eurostat report: even for the deadliest year for a long time (the Santiago derailment again), train collisions accounted for 101 deaths per year. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Transport_accident_statistics#Railway_accident_statistics http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/... You are quite correct that this is a well-understood problem, one that is prevented millions of time per day as the absolute baseline of any railway system. Of course, when it happens, it makes the news - precisely because it's so rare. If two cars collide and people die, that's not news - that happens all the time (at least 27 101 people in 2013, across 23 EU member states).