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Curve where Amtrak train derailed in Washington has speed limit of 30 mph
The Seattle Times ^ | December 18th, 2017 | By Mike Baker , David Gutman and Mike Lindblom

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: amtrak; rail; trainwreck
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To: fireman15

I didn’t take it personally. We all want answers and facts. Not likely to get them any time soon. I don’t understand why they haven’t released the name of the engineer. Why does he/she get special protection?

I really miss investigative reporters.


161 posted on 12/19/2017 10:44:58 AM PST by ilovesarah2012
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To: ilovesarah2012

They are probably not releasing the name of the engineer because they don’t want him opening his big mouth before they all get their stories straight.

This entire situation is more complicated than I have made it sound. It never really was about saving 70 people 4 minutes 5 times a day. That is just a lie they have repeatedly told the public.

The Amtrak Cascades is actually run by the State of Washington and Oregon and Amtrak is their contractor. Despite subsidizing passenger fares by 2 to 1, meaning that the State of Oregon and Washington pay $2 for every $1 that a passenger pays, the Amtrak Cascades still loses $250 Million dollars every year not including capital expenditures.

Nationwide publicly owned passenger rail projects are basically always huge money pits. This makes them ripe for the picking when it comes to political cronyism. It is a big scam that the left is hugely dependent on in many cases. Sound Transit was recently voted an additional $50 Billion dollars which by the notes are due will easily balloon into two or three times that amount.

There is so much money involved that unusual behavior and situations that cannot be explained occur because of behind the scenes deals and arrangements. This is government at its very worst... which is the result of a very easily manipulated liberal electorate on the Western side of Washington.

this kind of money can manipulate the truth so badly that one would swear the Clintons were involved.


162 posted on 12/19/2017 11:06:06 AM PST by fireman15
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To: fireman15

“Sound Transit’s day to day operations are expected to lose $190 million in 2017. Tax revenues exceed the capital improvement budget for the year, so the net loss will only be $131 million.[5]”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Transit


163 posted on 12/19/2017 11:16:33 AM PST by ilovesarah2012
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To: fireman15

“The current CEO of Sound Transit is Peter Rogoff. He served as President Obama’s Federal Transit Administrator and Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy in the U.S. Department of Transportation.”


164 posted on 12/19/2017 11:18:53 AM PST by ilovesarah2012
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To: ilovesarah2012
He served as President Obama’s Federal Transit Administrator and Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy in the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Sound Transit has been given the authority to spend so much money that it attracts even these big time grafters. This type of agency has almost no oversight at all and the opportunities to channel money and favors toward your political cronies are almost unlimited. This creates huge opportunities for quid pro quo arrangements... the types of arrangements that the Clintons have been made wealthy by.

My guess is that Peter Rogoff, the CEO of Sound Transit is set for life. Pierce County has reputation for extreme corruption. I am very aware of extremely questionable arrangements made by one of our most notorious local politicians, John Ladenburg when he was the head of Sound Transit.

165 posted on 12/19/2017 11:49:09 AM PST by fireman15
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To: fireman15

Looks like it is run by Washington local and state politicians with no neutral oversight. What could go wrong?


166 posted on 12/19/2017 11:57:40 AM PST by ilovesarah2012
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To: DoughtyOne

For what it’s worth.

http://www.king5.com/mobile/article/traffic/amtrak-train-was-50-mph-over-speed-limit-before-crash/281-500303305


167 posted on 12/19/2017 12:13:18 PM PST by ilovesarah2012
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To: ilovesarah2012
I understand that there is a technical answer to what happened in Philadelphia, but that wasn't what I was referring to. No one has satisfactorily explained why Brendan Bostian lost situational awareness.

He should have been charged, convicted and imprisoned for manslaughter, but the union's influence kept him safe.

The fact that everybody involved with Amtrak and WSDOT have clammed up makes me think this is going to happen again.

168 posted on 12/19/2017 12:52:42 PM PST by Publius ( ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius available at Amazon))
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To: Publius

Yet the story said passenger asked to borrow his cell phone and at first he refused but she kept begging. He eventually gave her his phone and told her the location where they were and the train number. But remember “situational awareness” if you ever need an excuse.


169 posted on 12/19/2017 1:44:57 PM PST by ilovesarah2012
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To: plain talk

Let me throw this out there. What if someone with a can of paint and a little talent turned that “3” on the speed sign into an “8”?


170 posted on 12/19/2017 1:48:39 PM PST by beef
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To: ilovesarah2012

Which incident are you referring to? And whose cell phone? I’m having trouble parsing your use of pronouns.


171 posted on 12/19/2017 1:50:05 PM PST by Publius ( ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius available at Amazon))
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To: beef

The engineer is also issued a booklet with block locations and speed limits. He would have had to turn the “3’ in the booklet into an “8”. Also note that the maximum speed limit for passenger trains (without cab signals and not on the Northeast Corridor) as delineated by the FRA in 1982 is 79 mph.


172 posted on 12/19/2017 1:56:39 PM PST by Publius ( ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius available at Amazon))
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To: Publius

“The prosecutor listed graphic details of the injuries suffered by the people who died. Among his witnesses was Blair Berman, who encountered Bostian just after the derailment.

Berman, tossed from the train and hobbled by her injuries, asked to use his phone. Initially, he refused, but Berman didn’t take no for an answer. “I was very aggressive,” she recalled.

As she called her father, she asked Bostian where they were, and he was specific about the location and the train number, 188. That level of awareness seemed at odds with other recollections. Philadelphia police Detective Joseph Knoll recalled meeting Bostian at ...

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/charges-dropped-against-amtrak-engineer-in-fatal-derailment-20170912.html


173 posted on 12/19/2017 1:58:27 PM PST by ilovesarah2012
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To: ilovesarah2012

Thank you for avoiding pronouns. That made it easier to understand your point.


174 posted on 12/19/2017 2:01:09 PM PST by Publius ( ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius available at Amazon))
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To: beef

Is there any evidence of that?


175 posted on 12/19/2017 2:13:48 PM PST by plain talk
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To: Publius

Well, then it could be a criminal act realized with the help of someone’s negligence. I have a niece who is an Amtrak engineer. I should ask her what the standard practice is.


176 posted on 12/19/2017 2:19:31 PM PST by beef
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To: beef

When all is said and done, you’ll find that this is a carbon copy of the Philadelphia incident of two years ago. The operator lost situational awareness for some reason.


177 posted on 12/19/2017 2:21:07 PM PST by Publius ( ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius available at Amazon))
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To: plain talk

None that I know of. Just another one of many theories that are floating around.


178 posted on 12/19/2017 2:21:43 PM PST by beef
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To: fireman15

The Mayor called it out.
My only info far FAKE news


179 posted on 12/19/2017 4:14:41 PM PST by mylife ( The roar of the masses could be farts)
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To: Mariner
...the train was going about 81 mph shortly before the derailment...

What does SHORTLY mean?

180 posted on 12/19/2017 5:16:52 PM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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