Posted on 06/25/2011 12:02:28 AM PDT by red flanker
CHURCHILL COUNTY, Nev. -- At least two people were killed and about 20 others were injured in a fiery collision between a Sacramento-bound Amtrak train and a semitrailer on a rural northern Nevada highway.
Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Lopez said the truck driver and one person on the train were killed in the 11:25 a.m. Friday accident about 70 miles east of Reno.
He says an unknown number of other people on the train were injured and are being taken by ambulances to the hospital.
(Excerpt) Read more at kcra.com ...
The driver did attempt to stop.
I see only two possibilities: 1) the driver fell asleep and it was fluke accident, or 2) the collision was intentional. You don't hit the fourth car back if you're just an idiot trying to beat the train.
If that's true, he may have fallen asleep at the wheel and woke up too late to stop.
Must have had the rig really hooked up if he skidded for 200 feet. Wonder if the trailer brakes were working.
200’ skid marks. I would have guessed that a tractor at high speed pulling two empty gravel trailers would have jack-knifed before crossing the tracks.
So the truck driver was braking but wonder if he was timing for the passenger cars. After September 11 attacks, I remember the investigative accounts of terrorists struggling to keep the airliners under control while lining up to hit the Pentagon and Trade Towers.
Bumping in agreement with your post no. 44.
When the news was breaking, there was no mention of skid marks, but that’s the nature of breaking news.
Nitehawk, I don’t consider myself liberal but I’d much prefer high speed rail to messing around being irradiated by TSA goons and dealing with the frustrating airlines, weather, their fragile computers, and their nickel and dime fees for intermediate range trips. As someone else said, high speed rail requires that there be no crossings.
The constant fear and talk about terrorism is just the frame of mind that they want us to be kept perpetually in, afraid of our own shadow and willing to hand over the Constitution and controls to TSA type goons and spend all of our treasury making the Chertoff’s rich, and impossibly covering every contingency.
The driver was probably distracted by texting or something, or he fell asleep. If he was hauling gravel he probably wasn’t one of the Mexican drivers that the big trucking companies now want to saturate America with. We need to know more.
It was pointed out to me by another kind poster that the driver was killed. Graveyard shift is killing me and I'd better get off of it soon. LOL!
And the media is being so quiet about it.
Wonder if the driver's name is Ahmed?
News reports are now emphasizing that the driver tried to stop (or at least hit his brakes), while showing absolutely no interest in his identity. Maybe he was here illegally - something the Feds and the DNC Media would both prefer to ignore.
You shouldn’t really comment on something you obviously know nothing about. All that Amish people want to do is raise their families the same way they were raised. They believe that televisions and modern things may corrupt the minds of the young. There is nothing “radical” about them. The people in this photo are some of my in-laws and I am completely offended by your comment. It’s people like you that make us “english people” look like idiots. This world would be a better place if everyone had the morals and values as most of the Amish do.
We here at Free Republic love and respect the Amish people. They are hard working, peaceful, freedom loving people who just want to be left alone to raise their families without the corruption of the world around them intruding.
Since 9/11/01, whenever there is a possible terror attack, the news media and government officials go out of their way to downplay any connection to radical Islam. They drag their feet releasing the perp's name and/or claim it was not a terrorist attack before any investigation is even done. As a way to illustrate the absurd by being absurd, FReepers will speculate that possibly the Amish (the ones least likely to be involved) were the perpetrators. It's more an indictment of the news media and government officials than criticism of the Amish.
I apologize for any offense - none was intended. I'm glad your family escaped unharmed.
Train should have swerved. ;-)
I was just replying to someone who thought the name was blasphemy.
I rode it back when I was a little kid going to Chicago. Perhaps your father was the conductor! It was a great name for the train, as it swept across the desert like a wind.
I don't want to be like a Democrat ghoul and use a tragedy to make a political point, but a train does not seem the most efficient way of getting 204 people from Chicago to California.
And I just checked the wires. Still no ID released for the driver. Hmmmmm.....
Seldom a good idea to visit a forum,
get offended by something you read,
and sign up as a member to post a reply.
You would have to hang around a while to “get it”.
Betcha the last name ends in a z.
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