diningcar Pehaps we should wait until specific info is available. It is likely to be a while until all this is determined.
Pehaps we should wait until specific info is available. It is likely to be a while until all this is determined.
Not that our opinions really matter, but let's face it, someone here always blame the (unnecessary pejorative used) or driver and never the rail folks. We don't know all the data.
Something's not quite right. A company that hauls wind blades down the highway would have experienced personel, a set procedure, a lot of expensive equipment, and they would have pilot cars front and back. If an official said the road's closed, take a different route, the truck driver doesn't just say "okie-dokie". Maybe there's some irony we're just not seeing? Perhaps the police closed the road because there was a long, awkward load permitted to come through at about that time... like a wind blade.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
The profanity laced video has been pulled from the internet, but it showed a lead pilot car. The one shot from the gas station shows two more pilot cars quickly pulling up.
charlie hebdo diningcar Pehaps we should wait until specific info is available. It is likely to be a while until all this is determined. Not that our opinions really matter, but let's face it, someone here always blame the (unnecessary pejorative used) or driver and never the rail folks. We don't know all the data.
We know the visible data. Trucks length with the blade would not let the vehicle make the turn from the parallel road across the crossing without damaging the crossing protection. That is in the hands of the trucker. The whys of him being put in that position will be food for a novella.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
There was a similar crash at Intercession City, FL. In the mid-1990s. It involved a truckload of a large and heavy power plant generator. At the last turn of the road into the plant, the trailer bottomed out because the track was double and banked for a curve, so very uneven at the surface.
I once looked for references to the permitting process and the determined cause of the collision. There was no request to the railroad (CSX) for a time slot guaranteed to have no trains pass. There was no notification to CSX about the move.
The trailer hung up and they started working with jacks and blocking to raise the trailer. They called CSX and a dispatcher told them that an Amtrak train was the next train due at the crossing in about 30 minutes. Neither the moving crew nor the dispatcher said anything about holding the train even though they all knew that the trailer and generator were sitting dead center on the mainline and had no way of knowing how soon they could move it into the clear.
The train would be approaching from the south and would encounter a curve maybe ¼-mile from the crossing. So the approaching train offered no advanced view which might have giving time to slow down or even stop in time.
There was an escort crew plus the State Highway Patrol who made no attempt to flag the train even though they knew which way it would approach from and the approximate time it would arrive.
As it turned out, the train came around the curve at 75 mph after only 15 minutes instead of the advised 30 minutes. The train hit the generator and derailed, injuring the engine crew and many people on the train.
I think Euclid alluded to the steering issue.
I live about three miles from where windmill blades coming from the south turn west onto I-80. Besides police stopping all traffic at the intersection (and making all the traffic back up with angry drivers), the rear wheels on the blade are steerable.
I can't tell from the video, but was the rear of this blade on a steerable set of wheels?
With the mess we go through everytime those blades come through here and tie up traffic when they turn, I can't imagine this happening unless the pilots, the driver, and the police all messed up.
York1 John
Call up Luling, TX on Google Earth https://earth.google.com/web/search/luling,+tx/@29.68045555,-97.64852717,125.85115239a,870.25673999d,35y,-0h,0t,0r/data=CnUaSxJFCiUweDg2NDM0ZjIyMzI3MjYwMzU6MHhlNDJmY2I4MDE5MjE3NWFmGU-2N641rj1AIW2Oc5twaVjAKgpsdWxpbmcsIHR4GAEgASImCiQJ8h_PcuBwNEAR7x_PcuBwNMAZT07F7gaESUAhT07F7gaEScA There is NO PLACE where there is sufficient room from a parallel roadway for a oversized long vehicle such as the wind mill blade in this incident to be able to turn from the parallel roadway and cross the railroad without damaging ANYTHING that is constructed near the actual road/rail crossing.
Anyone know where they were coming from and going to (the windmill blade, not the train)? If they were on I-10 and headed west, one more exit and they would have had a straight shot across the crossing...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
That may have been the route they planned on. If they did that they would be crossing the tracks at highway speed and probably didn't worry about an extended foul time.
I see no proof that the driver was unable to make the turn due to the constraints of the road intersection. I do see that the gates have dropped onto or near to the windmill blade. The driver may have stopped because he did not want to damage the gates, or possibly damage the big blade. I am sure he reaslized that just scratches on that blade would result in enormous damage claims.
My bet is that while the truck move was obviously required to be permitted, and had escorts; the railroad was never notified of the move or asked for a crossing time slot free of trains passages.
Even if the truck did not strike other things besides the gates, or had to stop in order to avoid striking other things; the issue was that, with such a large load, there were just too many uncertain contingencies that could increase the crossing time to more than the maximum 25 seconds allowed by the warning lights and gates. So in that case, attempting to cross was a gamble that a train would not show up in a crossing timframe that might easily take 15 minutes instead of 25 seconds.
The circumatances were identical to the Intercession City, FL collision I mentioned above. In that case, it was reported that the trucking company had the duty to notify the CSX to protect the crossing during the movement of the oversize/weight load. The trucking company failed to make the notification, so CSX had no knowledge of it.
And also in that case, the truck got hung up, thus extendeing their foul time beyond the 25-second limit.
But there was an odd twist to that collision. This information comes to me via an aquaintence who was the crane operator who picked up the derailed and overturned locomotive. Others who were part of the trucking crew and CSX told him that they called CSX after the truck got hung up on the crossing. And the only reaction by the dispatcher was to tell them a passenger train was due there in about 30 minutes. Emergency action could have and should have been taken immediately to get that train stopped short of the crossing. It should have been easy. Even if the CSX could not contact the train, they had the Highway Patrol there with the excort, and they had cruisers that could light up like a Christmas tree, and probably lots of red fusees for emergency use.
nevermind. Just.. nevermind.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
https://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/Documents/intercession-intercession_overview.pdf
Wow, I did not know that there was a second, nearly identical collision at that same crossing just 7 years after the first one. The one I am referring to above was the first one which occurred in 1993. That one put much of the train on the ground. I don’t recall that anyone was killed but there were lots of injuries, mostly to passengers on the train as they were thrown out of their seats and acquired broken bones.
The truck driver was badly injured as he made a last second attempt to yank the load off of the crossing. He left the cab and was still on the running board as the train hit the trailer at 75 mph. The truck whip-sawed and threw the driver against a power pole. The locomotive tipped onto its side and threw one of the crew up on top of the prime mover, and he contacted the hot exhaust manifold.
From the report, hers is what CSX requires, and this was not done:
CSXT’s Procedures • CSXT sends an employee to the crossing. Employee contacts the train dispatcher and waits until trains are clear of the area. Employee occupies the track in his name. Employee assures that the oversize shipment traverses the crossing safely. Employee returns the use of the track to the train dispatcher.
I live abut 45 minutes from a blade factory in SE Iowa. We see these things all the time on the highways around here. You don't realize how long they are until you pass one on the highway. The tip with the flag is in motion and it can be unnerving. They don't always ship by truck. Sometimes we see dedicated blade trains go past our house. Days later, you may see an empty one going back.
CRIP 4376I live abut 45 minutes from a blade factory in SE Iowa. We see these things all the time on the highways around here. You don't realize how long they are until you pass one on the highway. The tip with the flag is in motion and it can be unnerving. They don't always ship by truck. Sometimes we see dedicated blade trains go past our house. Days later, you may see an empty one going back.
A similar highway situation - Was driving I-95 through SC in mid-January one year - about 40 degrees and raining - passed a convoy of long (180-200 foot estimated) prestressed concrete beams. They each had a steerable boggie attached to the end of the beam that contained stop lights, turn signals and a drivers seat with a plexiglass windshield - no other defense for the driver from the elements. Can't think of a much more miserable job under the circumstance.
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