Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
I think when calculating the necessary deceleration in my first post in this thread I made a mistake. I checked the cab video again and it says it were 26 sec to the impact. A train at 56 mph travels s=2,135 ft in 26 sec. To stop in this distance it had to decelerate at the following rate: d = v²/2*s The deceleration had to be 1,58 ft/sec²  That sounds reasonable compared to the ICE 3's 3.61 ft/sec² The time to come to a stop would have been t=v/d= 52 sec. If the engineer had started to brake at first sight there would have been 52 sec, not 26 sec to leave the bridge. The numbers are approximations as brake delay and brake power build-up aren't considered. I don't think the engineer was able to start braking at this point. As the NTSB pointed out the bed was placed vertically beside the track. It fell back on the tracks when the train reached the road crossing. For me it is more likely that the engineer realized the danger at that point when a brake application would have had only little effect. In this light the quoted line of defense is not easy to understand. In hindsight this is always easy to say. The film crew got two NOs from CSX so it is not CSX's fault as I see it. But the legal system seems to work differently. Regards, Volker
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag