On 15 September 1830, passenger travel on steam trains was inaugurated with a 30-mile train line between Manchester and Liverpool. Guests on the world's first passenger train that day included the Duke of Wellington, Doctor Brandreth, and William Huskisson, a man noted as an economist, Member of Parliament, and President of the Board of Trade. After moving along at a steady (and incredibly fast, for the time) rate of 20 miles per hour, the cars stopped about halfway along the journey for water. During the stop, the passengers got out and milled about but, unfortunately, another train approached and struck Huskisson, fatally injuring him. Reports from the time explain that Huskisson was confused by the noise and the movement, and couldn't get out of the way in time, which makes sense. Here was a radically new thing -- a large man-made moving object on land -- which required a radically new way of adjusting to it. Huskisson didn't adjust in time, and paid with his life.
Security professionals are faced with new changes in technology all the time, and we have to adjust as well. Even more so, we have to shepherd the "normal" users we oversee through these changes, and sometimes -- no, most of the time -- that can be quite difficult. Unlike William Huskisson, we usually don't have to worry about someone losing a life if things go wrong; no, instead we have to worry about something many people would consider worse: a lawsuit.
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