What I got from the article was that they did not realize where they were until it was too late. Takes a long time to stop a train. But the whole thing is ridiculous. How could they not know where they were? You don’t need a multimillion dollar safety system to determine that. Google Maps ought to be enough.
Do you realize what you just said? The WRITER of the article says THEY did not realize where they were (impossible to begin with). No one from the media has interviewed the 'engineers' who are in the hospital, so how would the author know what they 'thought' ?
Why haven't the engineers been allowed to talk to the media ?
Maybe it's because someone ordered them to keep the speed high until the very last second, in order to make the run ON TIME (and it was behind schedule and would have arrived LATE if it followed the speed limits).
That is why all we hear about this is 'crickets'. AMTRAK is covering up for someone (probably those who had the most money to lose) and to ward off the lawsuits against AMTRAK.
Google Maps and GPS systems would not be adequate in detailing the forces that come into play. Hands on training, both day and night, is best way for engineers to learn the route. In this case it appears short cuts in training occurred. Not sure why the author of this article would think it “strange.” Most of us like short cuts.
This is up the road from my house. The RR parallels I-5. As they were heading south, they would have passed the lights of Ft Lewis, the town of duPont and then hit a stretch of rural track.
If they drove this at night in training a couple of times, there were enough visuals to tell them where they were.