It was about a month ago, when the count was in the teens.
I know it's way off, but that's what I recall the Houston Chronicle finally admitting in their first serious story about the train crashes. ... It was about a month ago, when the count was in the teens.
That just shows the bias of the Comical. Since 1/13, when the rate would have put the number of Wham-Bam-Tram crashes for the year at 56, the rate has climbed steadily. There was a period of 12 days near the beginning of February, when there were no crashes (reported). At the beginning of that period (2/3), the crash rate would have put the annual total at 97. At the end of that period (2/14), the day before the 10th crash, the rate would have put the annual total at only 76. It has not been so low since. In fact, we had a period of about two weeks, immediately following that temporary lull, when there was a crash, on average, every two days, with two crashes on 2/27, so the Wham-Bam-Tram more than made up for that 12 day lull. As I pointed out above, the current rate would put the annual total at 98.3. It actually topped 100 for two days last week. Watching that rate go up and down, it looks like something around one crash every 3.5 days is going to be the long term average, which should put the total figure for the year at around 100.
Personally, I never believe the Comical, until after I have verified all parts of the story from a reliable source.
The dates and location of each Wham-Bam-Tram crash is listed on the Action America Houston Page, just below the Wham-Bam-Tram Crash Counter. Every crash listed there has been verified in at least two major Houston news sources. With that information, you can calculate the current crash rate or the crash rate for any given date and project the annual total.
That page has become one of the more popular pages on Action America, taking over 3000 hits this month, so far. In fact, there is evidence that it has been bookmarked by a lot of people, because it is also one of the most popular entry pages on the site (the first page a person goes to, coming from another site). It seems to be getting to some of the Wham-Bam-Tram supporters, too, because I have begun getting emails from some of those people, complaining about how that counter fails to consider that all of the crashes were ruled the fault of the automobile driver, as if that made a difference, in light of the growing total. Those emails give me a warm fuzzy feeling and are a large part of why I have gone to so much trouble keeping up with the Wham-Bam-Tram crashes. If they are that bothered by it, then it must be having an impact.