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[quote user="Dragoman"] <blockquote> <div><img src="/TRCCS/Themes/trc/images/icon-quote.gif" /> Bucyrus:</div> <div></div> <blockquote> <div><img src="/TRCCS/Themes/trc/images/icon-quote.gif" /> Dutchrailnut:</div> <div></div> This trucking company runs over 100 trucks a day, sure they get citations. Sure they get reprimanded for having a truck not upto specs. 7 violations and one to have truck pulled off the road ?? sounds like media hype to me, betya if you stopped 100 automobiles at random you get a much higher violation and suspention rate. betya the FRA cited Amtrak way more on a average of one hundred cars or engines in same time ;-) <div style="clear:both;"></div>   </blockquote>   That is a good point.  The average car driver has no idea how much police scrutiny is focused on large commercial trucks.  ...    <div style="clear:both;"></div>   </blockquote> It is quite true that common carrier vehicles (truck, bus, commercial aircraft) get much more scrutiny than the average car.  And rightly so, IMHO, given a truck's much higher potential for causing death & destruction (due to mass/weight, time on the road, etc.). But two thoughts to consider: (1)  A commercial truck operator is generally under much greater competitive pressures to keep the equipment on the road, in spite of possible problems; (2)  Given the fact of the "increased police scrutiny", and the fact that everyone knows of the "increased police scrutiny", to have 8 trucks cited out of 19 checked, looks like more than a statistical anomaly. <div style="clear:both;"></div> [/quote] It may be that this company had an unusually bad record of safety violations, and it might be that the driver behavior that led to this crash is somehow related to that record.  But I don’t think any conclusions can be drawn based on the fact that the company was ticketed 8 times in 19 random inspections.  My only point is that that fact sounds bad to people who are only familiar with the police scrutiny of the equipment on their private automobile, and probably sounds bad to the news media reporting the event.   <o:p></o:p> The reality is that there are dozens and dozens of technical issues that a commercial truck can be in violation of.  As a driver, you hope you don’t get pulled over, but if you do, a ticket for something is almost to be expected.  Maybe Ed Benton can chime in on this.  <o:p></o:p> My best guess is that this crash was caused by driver distraction.  The driver is going down a wide-open road at very high speed.  There are no traffic lights out there that would habituate a driver to be on the lookout for conflicts.  All he is concerned about is keeping the truck on the road, and that does not take a lot of attention.  He dismissed the grade crossing and was caught off guard by the train.  I suspect that the biggest factor in the driver’s distraction was the fact that he was leading a convoy.     <o:p></o:p> The fact that he hit the train against that 45-degree angle would have added considerably to the impact force of the collision.  So, after learning of that angle, I am lowering my estimate of impact speed back down to 15 mph.
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