Rock Hurling Is Old Nemesis of Train Crews

NY Times ^ | MAY 16, 2015 | DAVE PHILIPPS and ELIZABETH A. HARRISMAY

[Second Amendment First]

PHILADELPHIA — In the dark blocks of crumbling rowhouses pushed up against vacant factories along Glenwood Avenue, a group of young men hanging out on a stoop on a recent night said it was easy to sneak onto the nearby railroad tracks.

“There’s fences, but a lot of times they are falling down,” said a 16-year-old with long hair and a thin mustache who gave only his first name, Isaac. “A lot of people go down, creepy people, bums — they throw rocks, they throw bottles, but usually it’s no big deal.”

Work continued Friday at the derailment site to restore service between Philadelphia and New York.

Nevertheless, the possibility that a flying object hit an Amtrak train before it lurched off the rails Tuesday in Philadelphia has unnerved riders and drawn increased public scrutiny to the safety along that stretch of track. Federal and railway officials say being struck by rocks, bricks and even bullets is a longstanding problem for trains in the country’s rail systems. While not speculating on the cause of Tuesday’s accident, a retired Amtrak engineer and a former transportation safety official with the federal government each said that a projectile striking a train would be a dangerous distraction for an engineer.

Investigators have not assigned a cause or blame for the crash of Amtrak’s Northeast Regional Train 188 as it made its way to New York from Washington. Eight passengers were killed and more than 200 people, including members of the crew, were injured.

The engineer, Brandon Bostian, told investigators that he had no recollection of anything after passing the North Philadelphia station. Around the same time, projectiles also hit two other trains in the area, breaking windows.

[bunkerhill7]

Snowball Derails Train, Kills 5

ther fixed it

[TXnMA]

As on a similar thread, I'll ask:

"By what principle of physics does a thrown rock cause a train to accelerate to 106 MPH?"

[NittanyLion]

I agree this is unrelated to the crash. That said, on the (viewer’s) left windshield halfway up and just to the right of the wiper there appears to be a small, perfectly round hole.

[Birdsbane]

Makes about as much sense as any of the other assumptions and there are a great many unknowns.

[Birdsbane]

If the possible scenario actually unfolded a I put forward, the “perp” probably would not have expected to survive.

[dragnet2]

Looking close, the entire right side of of the engine has severely impacted from below the headlight on the lower side, all the way up to the roof area.

Your pic shows front-end damage other than the damage to the windows, which suggests the engine derailed and hit something like a utility pole or a sign.

Here is another image which clearly depicts severe impact to the top right side of the engine body. Other images on the Net show scraping all along the entire right side of the engine, from one end to the other.

The lower image shows significant right side impact, just to the right side and above the window area.

As was mentioned earlier, the impact caved in the upper right side of the corner area of the roof. This impact and resulting deforming of the upper engine right side roof area could have easily shattered the window.

Also notable in the lower image is the center left of the window depicts what appears to be a near perfectly round hole.

[PROCON]

LOL, so Amtrak mooning is an organized event?

I....I...I feel so violated.

[dragnet2]

Only in CA.

[vette6387]

Well, In SoCal, it’s a 29 year tradition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wBoaOuXb3s

[dragnet2]

Lets see, so far we have projectiles coming through the windshield.

Now we have terrorist on board sneaking up KO’s the driver, jamming the throttle down then sneaking back to their seat.

And now the union representing those engineers say that recently-implemented schedule changes might have left him in a fatigued state that could have lessened his concentration.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/05/15/was-the-engineer-on-amtrak-188-too-tired-to-drive/

This is amazing..

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

Folks, Occam’s Razor, please.

Let’s say the reports of the rocks/projectiles are true. So, we have an engineer tooling along at 60mph when “Bamm!” the front windshield cracks (but does not break) from a rock impact. Being an idiot (and afraid), he does what most of us would do in a car if we saw someone throwing or shooting at us, he floors it. But he’s in a train, and at a dangerous curve. And viola, train crash...

This is not a defense. As an engineer, he should not have accelerated to “escape.” He knows this (which is why he “can’t remember”). But this will be the most likely explanation of this crash (assuming the projectile damage is found), when all is said and done...

[varyouga]

“I always have assumed that was a safety precaution for the one-in-a-million chance that the pilot would have a heart attack during take off.”

Also for slips of the hand and brain.

Past a certain calculated speed (known as “V1”), your only safe option is to keep accelerating and take off.