Midland, Texas case against UP dismissed or: "Look At This Idiot"

[ramrod]

This dismissal has an interesting ramification. The settlement of the action brought by 26 (I think) survivors and family members which was announced a couple of weeks ago is still awaiting approval by the court. This dismissal could lead to orders: by the court.

            1. The court could disapprove the settlement and direct a settlement, clearing UP. 

            2. The court could delay any action on the settlement until the appeal of the dismissal is finalized.

             3.The court could order a trial on the merits of the settlement, either in conjunction with a retrial of the dismissed case or independently.

 

            In any event, it ain’t over yet.

[wanswheel]

Pretty sure the settlement is secure, because it was the first of two separate lawsuits, and no longer connected to the second lawsuit, the one that came to trial.

http://www.oaoa.com/news/article_550ab6da-ae57-11e4-be97-c795d9621741.html

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Second-lawsuit-filed-in-fatal-Midland-train-crash-4150014.php

[jeffhergert]

mikeyuhas

Perhaps railroaders on this forum can answer this. In the past, locomotive video recorders had been reported to be configured such that audio was  captured along with the video, but that the microphone was external, to record sounds of the bell and whistle (and crash)... not the sounds of the crewmembers talking. The reports about the evidence of one crewmember calling the parade float driver an idiot seems to contradict that idea. So the question - do outward-facing locomotive cameras today routinely record audio from inside the cab?

 

No they don't.  The outside microphone can record conversations that take place outside of the cab, such as talk between crews when changing out.  I suppose it's possible for inside voices to be recorded if they were loud enough and the train was stopped.  I really doubt that ordinary conversations while the train was moving would be caught on tape, and even if they were I would guess they would be unintelligible.

Inward facing cameras on the UP are rare, for now.  While capable for recording audio, they aren't supposed to be set up to do that.  Maybe if the video is from an inward camera, they were lip reading the engineer. 

Could the video in question be one of a post accident debriefing?  Either done by the railroad on purpose or caught be a news camera (or someone with a phone) by accident.

Jeff

[wanswheel]

jeffhergert

Could the video in question be one of a post accident debriefing? 

It seems not.

Excerpt from the Odessa American

http://www.oaoa.com/news/article_7e185f6c-b23c-11e4-938a-8f9c5fc6e8e5.html?mode=jqm

“When the engineer saw that first float, he said, ‘Look at this idiot,’ ” Stouffer family attorney Brent Walker said during a pretrial hearing. He noted that the engineer and conductor both watched as the float crossed the tracks before the float that would ultimately be hit crossed the tracks.

However, when the issue came up in court, Union Pacific attorneys objected to video from the train being shown to the jury...

Excerpt from KOSA-TV, Odessa

http://cbs7.com/news/article_b847bf5e-a6ff-11e4-82f1-67dcee54df18.html

Opening arguments began with David Grigg representing widows of the veteran who passed away.

He spoke about Union Pacific using the emergency break and how the engineer, Simon Terrazas didn't pull it with enough time to stop. They broke down numbers leading up to the crash. Grigg said Terrazas saw the trailer cross the tracks about 27 seconds before hitting the vehicle because Terrazas said in train footage, "look at that idiot, can you believe this?" ...