Posted on 12/18/2017 6:00:15 PM PST by Mariner
The Amtrak train that derailed Monday morning on its inaugural trip through a faster railway route was supposed to slow dramatically before entering the curve where the crash occurred.
The speed limit at the curve where the train crosses Interstate 5 is 30 miles per hour, said state transportation department spokeswoman Barbara LaBoe, while the speed limit on most of the track is 79 mph. She said speed-limit signs are posted two miles before the lowered speed zone and then just before the zone.
“Engineers are trained to slow trains according to posted speeds,” she said.
Daniel Konzelman, who was driving on I-5 south parallel to the train, said he was traveling at 60 mph or more and watched the train pass his vehicle about a half-mile before the crash. A website that monitors locations and speeds of Amtrak trains, transitdocs.com, reported that the train was going about 81 mph shortly before the derailment, The Associated Press reported.
Russell Quimby, a consultant who was previously an investigator-in-charge for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said it appeared to him that the derailment was caused by speed. He said the track appeared relatively undisturbed, so it seemed unlikely that something knocked the train off the track, and he noted that it appeared the train drove in a straight line, missing the turn.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
ping
Yep. There it is. Operator error.
She said speed-limit signs are posted two miles before the lowered speed zone and then just before the zone.
“Engineers are trained to slow trains according to posted speeds,” she said.
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In this day and age of hi-tech isn’t there an onboard instrument that an engineer can refer to also? Or at least some place to post a post-it note: “slow down at curves”?
looks like all that self driving stuff is only as good as the Doofus that writes the code
I don't understand why trains are not robotically controlled. So much easier than self driving cars
It’s called Positive Train Control, and eventually it’s supposed to be implemented nationwide. It’s very expensive, and the railroads have been pushing back at the government for years.
The unions won’t have it. Positive Train Control would have helped, and the FRA wants it to be implemented nationwide, but due to its high cost, the railroads have been resisting it.
I have been leaning toward this being operator error for a while now. The pictures say a lot.
Here’s a link to the Transit doc web site showing all trains
on their track and current data such as speed, time, etc. I’ve
never seen that info before and didn’t know it existed.
“It’s called Positive Train Control”
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I’m thinking more along the line of GPS, such as you have in cars. Except it’s overlaid by train tracks instead of streets. So you know where you are and whats coming up, something independent of just human sight and memory.
Make sense or no?
Yeah, the buggy whip union hated change as well
81mph on a 30mph curve. Not too smart.
I used to jump trains as a kid and it wasn’t as risky as the trains now.
They went slow through town
Next they will be telling me boats are dangerous in high seas /s
“Casey Jones, you’d better watch your speed....”
“Here’s a link to the Transit doc web site showing all trains
on their track and current data such as speed, time, etc. I’ve
never seen that info before and didn’t know it existed.”
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That’s something like I had in mind re:my questions/posts here.
There is math in there some where.
Photos can be deceiving, but that train hit the trestle pretty square with cars off the track on both sides of it.
If a train goes off the track around a curve due to excessive speed (only), the rail cars will generally be all on one side of the track, outside the curve.
As a layman outside the investigation, that one picture seemed to refute the idea this we solely excessive speed.
Perhaps others observed something I didn’t, and this would not make sense in light of that.
This is baffling.
Drugs? Texting? Suicide attempt?
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