It would stop an engine over revving and the chaos that that would cause. The driver wasn’t injured, but suppose he was. I understand the steersman’s seat was destroyed. Assume he was sitting on it or standing next to it at the time. He is on the floor with a great gash to his head or his thigh sliced open and the engine is speeding out of control until someone can get onto the footplate and shuts it down, or the motion disintegrates. As can be seen in the video, if a belt breaks on a loaded steam engine, the engine goes straight up, so to speak.
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