Up to a point, but the "sometimes" makes it difficult to say anything definite. There's no shortage of stories where immediate intervention has made things wors

Up to a point, but the "sometimes" makes it difficult to say anything definite. There's no shortage of stories where immediate intervention has made things worse, such as a burning train being stopped in a tunnel. Furthermore, this sort of counterfactual or "if only" analysis can be used to direct attention away from what matters, as was done in the hounding of the SS Californian's captain during the inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic. Here, one cannot fault the passenger for first getting himself and his family out of the compartment, and he correctly determined that the train manager's "follow the rules" response was inadequate in the circumstances - in fact, the inquiry might have considered the incongruity of having an emergency brake available for any passenger to use at any time, while restricting its use by train crew. RCA quite properly focuses on the causes of the event, which would have been of equal significance even if the train had been halted in time, and which would continue to present objective risks unless addressed.