Korea and transportation safety

After a few too many high-profile rail accidents, the Los Angeles area is opting for some cutting-edge safe trains:

Among the key defenses incorporated into the shiny, stainless-steel double-decker cars will be collapsible nose cones in front of engineers and riders on so-called cab cars, the passenger vehicles that lead the trains half the time as they run in reverse, heading inbound toward the Los Angeles Union Station hub. Current cab cars have little in front of the driver's control booth and the passenger compartment except a flat, thin car wall. ...

Other new safety features include piston-like, push-back car frames and couplers that transfer crash energy around passengers to the rear of the train. Redesigned seating, tables that crush on impact, improved escape and rescue access, fire-retardant materials and anti-derailment technology also represent a "material step forward," said Grady Cothen, a top Federal Railroad Administration safety official.

Federal studies have found that such improvements can dramatically reduce deaths and incursions into passenger space in many accidents.

And the relevance? These are the same Korea-manufactured Rotem cars that will be put together in the SoCal community of Colton.

Hmm... I wonder if we're back to a situation where other countries are getting better Korea-made goods than Korea does.