PRSL, I am only an amateur rr'der, and do not disagree with your advice regarding saftey, but I am wondering how you'd handle a fairly common situation I should think where spotting cars onto an industrial spur requires a backup move. I am assuming that it would not be desirable to leave the rear engine or caboose on the spur behind the cut of cars, so it would have to be cut off on the main, pull forward past the sw and then back into the spur. If the backup move is a long one and visibilty is impaired, I can see where the person on the ground could walk along using a radio. We do something like this in some of our switiching operations at SVRy, but if the shove is a particularly long one and perhaps the ground is littered inside the plant with obstacles, it seems like riding the side of the lead car shouldn't be that big a deal.
On the other hand playing devils advocate, I have a copy of an accident report from a minor injury that occured at Meacham in the Blue Mtn's on UP many years ago. The brakeman riding the lead car on a shoving move was thrown forward to the ground off of the car he was riding the side of when the enigneer brought the engine to a sudden stop with the indpendent and the slack ran out. Fortunately the crew member only suffered minor cuts and bruises from the fall. I imagine it could have been much worse.