Please hold good thoughts for the victims amongst all this speculation. The brother-in-law of a friend is still unaccounted for, and his family is terrified.
@alwaysamom I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what your friends are going through. I will be thinking positive thoughts.
I just read a midshipman about to graduate died in the crash. I’m just heartsick over that - a life full of potential just gone over something so awful. I know all the deaths are, but I know some young men in the academy and it hits close to home. I’m so sorry alwaysmom about your friends family member…prayers for all involved.
This is so awful. I have been on that train route many times over the years. My heart breaks for the families of those lost and those recovering from injuries. Actually we have an employee who commutes by train about 1x or 2x a week, don’t expect to see him in the near future.
Coincidentally there was a program earlier last night that talked about the safety situation on Metro-North in that horrific accident this past winter and nothing has changed at all in regards to that very dangerous crossing. Now that foliage is in bloom, it is virtually impossible to see the RR crossing sign and apparently as the road is on curve you come up on the tracks very quickly. Again this is the accident in which a train hit a car stopped on the tracks. Five were killed in the train and the woman driving the car.
@alwaysamom - So sorry to hear that you have a personal connection. I hope there’s just a glitch with some communication system that he’s still alive and just hasn’t reached them yet. But I’m sure they’re worried about the worse-cast scenario, regardless.
@alwaysmom - so sad
Alwaysmom, so sorry about your friend’s brother-in-law. I will keep my fingers crossed for them.
House just voted to cut Amtrak’s budget.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/amtrak-budget-house-panel-crash-117904.html
World News Tonight with David Muir reported that the mid-shipman killed in the crash was about to complete his sophomore year at the academy. My niece is in that same class, so I can only imagine how she and all the rest of his classmates must feel right now. It’s so sad. Stories like this always hit me hard, because I put myself in his parent’s shoes. The sorrow must be almost unbearable. Here you have your talented and brilliant son of whom you are so, so proud, a young man whose future you know to be very bright, your precious child upon whom you’ve hung so many hopes, dreams and expectations. Suddenly, just…gone. I want to cry just thinking about it.
This is a terrible tragedy, but sounds like it was preventable. Why would we not invest in the technology that would automatically slow the train at appropriate times? Frankly I am tired of the dysfunction in DC. How many tragedies have to occur before they decide that investing in our infrastructure is necessary. Weve had train derailments, bridges crumbling, etc, all causing the deaths of unsuspecting citizens. Everyone should be outraged.
It was in the process of being installed. It didn’t get to this particular curve yet. I don’t quite understand why we concentrate on this and away from the engineer. Eventually, all trains may run auto-pilot. Self-running trains seem easier to achieve than self-driving car. But lack of technology didn’t cause the accident. The speeding did. Did the train speed on its own without the engineer? Was the train malfunctioning? There are dozens of trains running the same track daily. All without incidents.
@Iglooo good point! I think both sides have to be addressed. Unfortunately, the engineer has lawyered up, and is not taking questions. In these instances, they should have to submit to tests immediately. At this point, we know it was excessive speed, but were there other factors, drugs, alcohol? There will always be instances of pilot error, that is why I advocate for the system that will override the speed. However, he should he held accountable for his actions.
I’m not really up to speed on technology - but I know we rented a car on vacation that wouldn’t let us go over a few miles of the speed limit. If that’s on cars, can that be put on trains? What kind of education and training does it take to drive a train? I’d be curious if they regularly check the speed each engineer drives at each stretch with various speed limits.
I don’t think it’s hard just Amtrak bureaucracy if I have to guess. Whatever it is why in the world was the train running at 106mi/h in 50 mi/h zone? How hard can it be to run the train and maintain a reasonable speed?
The system cannot override the speed if the speed does not exceed the limit. The rental car does not let the driver go over 70 mph but it does not reduce the speed to 30 mph when the driver is in a 30 mph zone. Right now GPS devices can detect speed limit on the road but the car manufacturers don’t apply that capability to the cars yet. They can do that in the future but the question is when.
The responsibility in this accident is still on Amtrak.
I agree that our train systems are too old.
The NTSB has said that if a Positive Train Control System had been in place, it would have detected that the train was traveling too fast, and would have slowed it to a safe speed before it hit that section of track. Apparently, Amtrak has been installing these systems in other parts of the country, but they had not yet gotten around to installing it along this route. This means that a sleeping, texting, suicidal, or otherwise impaired engineer would not have been able to run the train at deadly speeds, even if he wanted to. So while a lack of technology did not cause the crash, it appears that it would have prevented this particular one. Why we seem to think it’s preferable to focus on the engineer instead of the way we lack the will to tackle our crumbling rail infrastructure (as well as that of our bridges, electrical grid, municipal water and sewage infrastructure, etc.) is beyond me. The rest of the developed world must be shaking its collective head in disbelief. I know I am.
Why, oh why in God’s name can’t we put aside partisan bickering, and work in good faith to fix Amtrak? Why is compromise so impossible anymore? What happened to the idea of public/private partnerships to solve problems of national importance? Do we really need to have a train derailment every week for Washington to stop pointing fingers and work together? Must we have catastrophic water and sewer main failures in major metropolitan areas, and massive blackouts before we remove our heads from between our collective butt checks and find the will to address these problems? The thing that gets me, is that nothing less that the health of our economy rides on how and when we begin to address our failing infrastructure. If we don’t do it soon, we may as well kiss our status as the world’s most economically powerful and politically relevant nation goodbye.
The reporters make me throw up here, but they’re just parroting what comes from their handlers.
Who in their right mind thinks you can drive the train at 100(+!!!) mph around a curve and not have it lead to dire consequences.
The NTSB spokesman yesterday said they planned to interview the engineer, but wanted?needed? to wait until the trauma had been dealt with (and I suppose until his union provided lawyers concoct the story that absolves him.) I don’t understand why concern over the engineer’s possibly being upset overrides a need to find out if he was impaired.
All infrastructure needs to be maintained, but people who don’t belong in their jobs should be fired or not hired in the first place. The latter is the problem here.
Edit: The NYPost reports that he gave a blood sample. Also that he has no recollection of what happened. Maybe that is so. How does a 32 year old get a job with this responsibilty? And what qualifications are required?
Maybe a second engineer at the controls is needed? I’m at a loss.
The report I read this morning says the engineer has a head injury. He was apparently drug tested, though.
Yes, the engineer has a lawyer. I think any reasonable person in his situation would hire one. He voluntarily submitted to blood testing and gave authorities his cell phone. He was knocked out. He had a concussion and 15 staples in his head. http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/14/us/philadelphia-amtrak-train-derailment/
@dadx, you are just plain wrong when you AUTOMATICALLY assume the driver is at fault. It is possible that he did try to slow the train and there was a mechanical failure which prevented that. Sometimes, when a car fails to stop at a stop sign it’s because the driver failed to stop. Even then, driver’s failure might be due to a heart attack or something else he can’t control. Other times, it’s because the brakes failed.
We just don’t know what happened here.
It was reported that he doesn’t remember anything from the time of the crash. He remembers approaching the curve and hitting the brakes then nothing. So why can’t they ask him why he was going that fast in the first place?
The time for a discussion of the politics of mass transit needs to come, after we get answers about what happened in Philadelphia. But know this; there are a great many Americans who, unfortunately, do not support passenger train service. Europeans and the Japanese love their rail transport and traveling by train in those places is quite safe. Amtrak’s leadership has never been as bad as their detractors state, and Congress has starved Amtrak from the beginning. Incidentally, when other regions have sought to install or upgrade passenger rail service, the howls from the opponents often win the day. BART, SEPTA, Niagara Frontier, MARTA…the list goes on.