Home
»
Trains Magazine
»
Forums
»
General Discussion
»
Train Hits Veterans Parade Trailer In Texas

Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="edblysard"] [quote user="Bucyrus"] This does confirm my earlier speculation that the train began braking prior to impact, and was traveling below the speed limit at the time of impact.  Although it says that the impact speed was 62 mph, which was higher than what I expected.  <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ntsb-train-traveling-62-mph-in-70-mph-zone-when-hit-trailer-killing-4-injuring-16-in-texas/2012/11/16/9d85b23c-3043-11e2-af17-67abba0676e2_story.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ntsb-train-traveling-62-mph-in-70-mph-zone-when-hit-trailer-killing-4-injuring-16-in-texas/2012/11/16/9d85b23c-3043-11e2-af17-67abba0676e2_story.html</a> <div style="clear:both;"></div> [/quote] While this might sound callous and uncaring, if we slowed down for every single grade crossing incursion, we would never get to track speed, or get where we are going. Most of the time, the offending car is out of the way by the time we arrive…the fact this train was either slowing or running slower than track speed makes me think the engineer figured out this might be the exception to the normal. [/quote]   Ed, I understand that you may be speaking in a general sense, but just to be clear, I am not advocating slowing trains down for grade crossings.  And I do understand your point that that position is not callous.  It is just physics that engineers cannot attempt to stop for an impending close call.  For one thing, there are a lot of them.  But the main reason, as you say, is that if it is going to be close, they won’t get stopped in time anyway, and won’t even get slowed down much.   But having said that, it would not surprise me if there are a lot of calls for trains to slow down or even yield for grade crossings in the wake of this crash.  I would expect just that from any of the national news media.  As I mentioned earlier, I speculate that this U.P. engineer did set the brakes substantially ahead of impact, upon seeing two large trucks with a traffic light holding them, and one of them fouling the crossing.   I would think that an engineer would, and should, attempt to stop if he recognizes danger in time to do something about it, as is often the case with a stalled vehicle. But it does bring up an interesting point.  There are a few Youtube videos on line showing locomotive camera coverage of trains hitting stalled vehicles and equipment.  One was that fire truck that got hit by an Amtrak train.  The truck did try to get out of the way at the last instant.  It would be interesting to know how the engineer reacted to that situation prior to impact.  However, an emergency application might not have been audible in the video capture.
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