Posted on 09/19/2008 12:57:46 PM PDT by ZGuy
A freight engineer who ran past two warning signals most likely caused the head-on crash with a Metrolink commuter train that killed two passengers and injured hundreds of others.
Officials from the NTSB have ruled out brake or other mechanical failure, track problems and signal malfunctions.
Two miles from the site of the collision a yellow light signaled to the engineer that he should slow to 30 mph. But NTSB investigators said the Santa Fe freight engineer appeared to ignore or miss the light. The train picked up speed to about 48 mph.
“He did not slow the train at all,” said Marion Blakey, the NTSB chairwoman. “He kept going full bore.” A minute and a half later, the 67-car freight train was signaled by a red rail light to stop, but the train was traveling too fast. The engineer’s efforts to apply the emergency brakes were not enough to prevent the train from slamming into the Metrolink cars, which had already stopped on the track.
Seconds later, the freight hit the double-decker passenger cars a second time.
Blakey called the Placentia accident a worst-case scenario, adding: “This kind of head-on collision is exactly what the NTSB has been concerned about for years.”
In the wake of the crash, Blakey said, the rail industry must consider installing fully automated braking systems, which are used in the Northeast. There, passenger and freight trains also share common tracks. The system operates without action by the engineer. It is triggered by warning and stoplights along the rail line,
Blakey issued a strong endorsement for those systems during a news conference in Fullerton, saying that if they had been in place in Orange County, the trains would have stopped.
“The human error problem would be eliminated.”
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.latimes.com ...
The article 2 Die, Hundreds Hurt as Trains Crash Head-On describes the crash itself.
Didn't he die in the crash? The story said two people died, so I'm a little confused.
Owl_Eagle
There are people who are surrounded by bigots
and know it is wrong, but are afraid to be vocal against it.
These people are going to pull the lever for Obama
and they are not being polled.
angee_is_mad, DUmmy
This was posted as a history article from 2002. I tried to title it so no one would be confused.
I found it interesting that after that head-on crash they proposed the same solutions that they are still talking about now, 6 years and 25 fatalities later.
No this article and the findings negate that the man who had been texting (the Metrolink engineer who died) was not at fault the freight engineer who lived was and is. Also the Metrolink had right of way.
Wait. So this is an article about ANOTHER train wreck in 2002? I think you should have said (in your title —(article NOT the current Metrolink wreck) and then in your post—It is the findings for a previous wreck in 2002. Glad you found this though and posted it. I was surprised when I thought this was the present wreck that the freight engineer was at fault as all news was orienting toward the Metrolink engineer. So it is still likely the Metrolink engineer?
Please negate my last post. This is an old article. Was confused same as you, but now the OP has clarified.
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