Replies

I'd be curious to see the number of train derailments/accidents in the United States since 9/11 and compare that number to the number of train accidents in the same time period (roughly 3 years) prior.
There was a derailment in California recently and our S-3 observed that, to him, it seemed as if the number of train mishaps has increased.

There was a derailment in California recently and our S-3 observed that, to him, it seemed as if the number of train mishaps has increased.

IT's funny ya bring that up... I was watching a few feeds online about that exact train derailment recently... The first thing that came to my mind was Terrorism... how hard would it be for someone to go out there and mess with the rails, so no one could detect it would malfunction? And lets say an explosive device was used to blow the rails... would the transit athority people let us know? or will it be swept under the rug in the name of public protection?

Re: your recent train accident in California.

Local news on the radio, said that the shut down of the gasoline pipeline to Phoenix, may have been caused by that train accident.

They seemed to think that the train damaged it in Calif.

I'd be curious to see the number of train derailments/accidents in the United States since 9/11 and compare that number to the number of train accidents in the same time period (roughly 3 years) prior. There was a derailment in California recently and our S-3 observed that, to him, it seemed as if the number of train mishaps has increased.

If you do a search I believe there are many threads from approximately 1 year ago during a frenzy over derailments, and a few people actually did sit down and run the numbers, and there had been no increase in train derailments since 9-11.

The same is also true of industrial accidents and explosions. Both derailments and industrial accidents are far more likely to make national wires and get posted on FR since 9/11; there hasn't been any actual increase in numbers. Another thing that happens is if there's a major derailment or industrial accident, then people are far more likely to post minor derailments or accidents that they find in local newspapers and the like on FR that occur in the weeks following, creating the illusion of some sort of uptick in numbers.

Last time we had a chicken little thread on train derailments, I looked up the numbers on the web (the feds post the statistics). There has been no statistical increase. As I recall, the railroads average over one derailment a day.

Here's the old thread:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1112722/posts

and here's the stats:
http://safetydata.fra.dot.gov/OfficeofSafety/Default.asp

Have fun.