Posted on 11/22/2008 10:15:57 AM PST by traumer
'But we don't know why,' an investigator says. The collision injured five people Thursday.
Federal investigators said human error or brake problems may have caused a Metrolink train to run a red light before it slammed into a freight train Thursday in Rialto.
The Metrolink crew noticed two lights before the red signal, said Ted Turpin, the National Transportation Safety Board investigator supervising the inquiry. One was flashing yellow and the other solid yellow, which should have alerted the crew that they had to stop so the other train could move off the single line of shared track and onto a side rail.
"They used the brakes but they didn't stop," Turpin said.
The Rialto crash, which injured five passengers, marked the second time in less than three months that a Metrolink train had failed to heed a stoplight before hitting another train.
Investigators in the catastrophic Chatsworth crash in September have said the engineer raced past a red light before slamming into an oncoming freight train, killing 25 people and injuring 135 others. The engineer was also text messaging before the impact.
The latest accident prompted Metrolink's board of directors on Friday to direct staff to explore what would be required to terminate the agency's contract with the private company that runs the commuter trains.
"If it turns out to be operator error, then it raises serious issues about how [the contractor] is responding to what happened in Chatsworth and the concerns raised by Metrolink," board member Richard Katz said in an interview.
Thursday's crash was similar to the Chatsworth collision, except that the commuter train was moving slowly when it hit the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway train.
Experts said the crash, coming on the heels of the Chatsworth collision and other deadly Metrolink accidents in recent years,
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Was the Metro Link crew texting young boys?
Isn’t flashing yellow a SLOW-DOWN signal ?
Yes. They get two yellow signals (4miles in advance) before they even get to the red signal. Which is when the crash happened.
They may not have known the meaning of the various lights. Check out Metro Link hiring policy.
I was going to suggest that he was too busy text messaging to bother looking out the window. Sure enough. Same thing as the last big accident.
I presume he was also probably some sort of affirmative action employee, or somebody's gay boyfriend?
Flashing yellow means “slow down because you’re going to go over a switch onto another track.”
Possibility of brake failure. Do Metrolink trains use electric or air brakes? They are trying to change all freight trains to electric now so it would be interesting to find out just what happened.
On freight trains, flashing yellow light means slow to 40 mph preparing to stop two signals away. Then you should expect a yellow light which means slow to 30 mph preparing to stop at next signal.
I believe that Metrolink still only has one person in the cab. Once again they suffer from not having another set of eyes up front to help make sure the train is handled properly.
Under the new laws, the engineer can personally be fined up to $10,000 if in fact he was texting or on the phone at the time of accident. I am sure the FRA has already looked at his phone records.
Connex has reported problems with getting conductors used to the new rules -- they're now required to actually work -- but I had heard of no difficulties with engineers.
Imagine the carnage to come when public servant "critters" take over the duties.
>they’re now required to actually work — <
That must really suck.
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