If a Train Driver Goes Way over the Speed Limit and People Die Should there be Charges?

Based on my finding of fact [joke], he will be charged with manslaughter. I'm not sure whether it will be voluntary or involuntary manslaughter.

the way America seems to work now is that we allow systemic problems, problems with process, to fester with no attempt to fix them, and the when things go bad we criminally prosecute who ever happened to be at the helm when disaster struck. this is really starting to bug me. I cant get over that MTA never bothered to do the cheap retrofit of putting deadman switches in the cab for push configuration.

Would such a switch work if the driver is asleep?

I would hope that there are switches that detect excessive speed and automatically slow the train.

Excessive speed for a bend is not the same as excessive speed for a straight section.
In other words such a safety device would have to know where the train was, and be set with the recommended safe speed for that section...not impossible nowadays I would have thought.

the system continually prompts the engineer for a response, if it does not get it the train automatically breaks. this helps keep the human awake, and if it does not takes action to prevent tragidy.

It brakes, so that it does not break.

Homophone corner - that's twice you've written 'breaks' for 'brakes'. It was pointed out to you, but you took no notice. This may seem like a minor point, but such carelessness can be irritating, and if it is actually the result of ignorance, it dilutes your arguments.