Norfolk Southern's system to detect bearings in the process of failing was set to too high a threshold, so it didn't warn the crew of the train until it was about to derail.

One could suggest that the government require railroads to generate these warnings at a lower threshold, but the company has a response for that: the other major US railroads are even worse.

The article talks about a possible improved detector that would detect such problems at an earlier stage. Perhaps that should be adopted, once it is ready for use. But we should require safe practices now, and we should not accept the possibility of a technical advance as an excuse not to do so.