The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system is a fast (eighty miles per hour top speed) commuter rail system serving three counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was authorized by public statute in 1957 and went into service in 1972. The prime contractor for the BART project was PBTB, a consortium of three large engineering firms, Parsons-Brinkerhoff, Tudor, and Bechtel. During the course of design and construction, three engineers undertook principled actions that played a significant role in advancing the development of engineering ethics in the United States.

The Engineers and Their Actions

Holger Hjortsvang, an experienced systems engineer, was involved with the Automated Train Control System (ATC). Max Blankenzee, a young programmer analyst, worked with Hjortsvang. They became concerned about the way the ATC subcontractor, Westinghouse Corporation, was doing its job. A principal issue with Hjortsvang was the absence...