B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Ground Conflict; Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Ground Incursion Runway
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors; Procedure; ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Airport
I was working Ground Control and had noticed that an E145 was taxiing down Taxiway WP extraordinarily slowly; so slowly that there were several airplanes behind him that taxied out several minutes later; in my opinion it was extremely excessive; and a major cause of this runway incursion. This got the pilots and the Local Controller a little anxious to get departures rolling before we start taking delays. The Local Controller put the conflict E145 into position on 33L at WL; several minutes later the ASDE-X alarmed and I looked up thinking it was a false alert to realize that the aircraft made a wrong turn and was trying to LUAW on 33R as a 737 was mid takeoff roll. Local then said she saw it ahead of the alert and told the aircraft to hold position as the 737 took off. The runway status lights need to be turned on; these have been in the works for too long. Some pilots are taxiing excessively slowly at times which has caused other problems reference crossing runways as controllers are not expecting them to taxi so slowly or get too anxious and irritated. The ASDE-X did not alarm with enough time to stop a catastrophic accident if Local had not stopped the E145. I did not see the situation developing; but from what I saw the ASDE-X did not sound with enough warning time to correct the situation. Perhaps it would be a good idea to set up a different kind of alert similar to a CA that would alert the Tower if a situation could possibly develop.
IAH Controller described a developing runway incursion event; prevented by Local Control intervention; the reporter listing runway status lighting procedures and delayed ASDE-X alarms as causal factors.