Home
»
Trains Magazine
»
Forums
»
General Discussion
»
New story on the Northridge Metrolink crash.

Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
Well I got the answer to my question about how a signal that is supposed to show green could show red.  I conclude that in this case, with the other factors related to the final signal, there would be close to zero probability for that signal to display green.  I would conclude that a false green under the same conditions would likely be unprecedented in the U.S., depending on how it is qualified.  It is probably fair to guess that anything that could happen did happen if you include the entire history of signals, especially considering the fact that earlier signals included more mechanical parts.  <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> In more recent times, incidents of false greens have occurred due to a failure to shunt the rails due to sand on the rails or disk brakes on single RDC units.  In this Chatsworth wreck, however, it seems improbable that a failure to shunt occurred with a freight train.  Moreover, there are several other occurrences that do not correlate with a failure to shunt.  So I conclude that a false green would have been almost impossible, however if anyone has an explanation of how it would be possible, I would like to hear it.   <o:p></o:p> There is nothing improbable about text messaging causing distraction, and Sanchez was doing a lot of texting right up to the final seconds before impact.  What is somewhat surprising though, is how long the distraction would have had to be in order to miss the red signal.  If the red signal was visible from the station, I speculate that it was also visible for some distance prior to reaching the station.  So the engineer would have been slowing for the station stop, then standing at the station for a short time, and then leaving the station and accelerating to full speed as he approached and passed the final signal.   <o:p></o:p> This process must have consumed at least a few minutes, all the while with the red signal within sight of the engineer.  And during this time, he had to stop and start the train, plus he also (I assume) had some kind of communication with the conductor in order to leave the station.  So these activities would have required him to devote at least some of his attention to the work at hand.  Furthermore, he had two prior signals warning him that the final light was red.   So it seems like he experienced an awfully long span of distraction.  People text all the time while driving cars, and it does create enough distraction to cause crashes.  But I picture the distraction in those cases as lasting only a few seconds because that is all it takes to lose control of a car.  But it takes longer to lose control of a locomotive, so those short distractions that cause car crashes would not seem to hardly interfere with operating a locomotive unless it is during switching.  Therefore, apparently, text messaging and similar distractions lengthen according to the opportunity for them to do so, and a locomotive, not needing to be steered, offers a lot more opportunity than a car does.
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