train crash in LA at least 2 dead...

60103

Pooh Bah
Looking at the pictures on CNN, I'm surprised that it's that low. It looks as if one coach took a direct hit from a big UP unit while the one at the other end telescoped on the train's unit.

Edit: I couldn't tell from the early pictures. I guess the dark blob next to the coach is part of the commuter loco.
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
I've heard numbers from 15 -20 fatalities in the past 1/2 hour on the local news stations, but there are quite a few in local hospitals in critical condition, so the news will probably get worse.
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
This morning the death toll is at 17 with 135 injured and 85 still in area hospitals. What I find curious is no none knows why the 2 trains were on the same track at the same time. A few years ago when the BNSF freight hit a Metrolink train in the early morning hours, they knew almost immediately that the BNSF had run a red signal. In defense of the BNSF crew, the sun was positioned at the very time the train came through that it was virtually "perched on top of the signal" blinding the crew so that they could not tell what color the signal was.
 

TrainNut

Ditat Deus
In defense of the BNSF crew, the sun was positioned at the very time the train came through that it was virtually "perched on top of the signal" blinding the crew so that they could not tell what color the signal was.
So does that mean that if you can't tell what color the light is, you go ahead anyways and hope it was green?:eek:
 

UP SD40-2

Senior Member
...A few years ago when the BNSF freight hit a Metrolink train in the early morning hours, they knew almost immediately that the BNSF had run a red signal. In defense of the BNSF crew, the sun was positioned at the very time the train came through that it was virtually "perched on top of the signal" blinding the crew so that they could not tell what color the signal was.

So does that mean that if you can't tell what color the light is, you go ahead anyways and hope it was green?:eek:
GOOD ONE TrainNut:winki: .

the "i couldn't see the color" has got to be the WEAKEST excuse i have ever heard:roller: , you can darn sure bet if I couldn't tell the color on the signal i would be IMMEDIATELY BRAKING, and would be on the radio faster then you could say radio:winki: .

**Back to the CURRENT matter at hand, the Metro-link ran the red, they suspect the engineer was killed, but they haven't found him yet.
 

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
Deaths stand at 25 with the possibility of many more as there are many people in hospitals in critical condition.... 125 people injured with 45 people in critical condition. :cry: :cry: :cry:

Reason for the crash you ask? The driver of the Metrolink train was TEXT MESSAGING on his cell phone and ran a RED light. The resulted in the head on collision between the UP Freight Train and the Metrolink. They even said he was TEXTING on his phone 1 Minute before the 2 trains collided. THIS COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED, Sadly it had to end resulting in many losses of lifes because of human error and failure to stop at a RED signal.

My thoughts and prawyers are with all those who have sadly passed away in this horrible accident
 
LOS ANGELES - Federal officials investigating a commuter rail collision that killed 25 people said they want to review cell phone records to determine if an engineer blamed for running a stop signal before the crash may have been text messaging at the time.


With no answer on the cause of Friday's crash, a smaller number of commuters than normal returned to the rails Monday morning.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa boarded one of the morning's earliest trains.
"I want to dispel any fears about taking the train," the mayor said. "Safety has to be our number one concern, and while accidents can and do happen, taking the train is still one of the safest and fastest options for commuters."
The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed on Sunday that the engineer, who was killed in the crash, had failed to stop at the final red signal.
NTSB experts are planning to review the cell phone records of two 14-year-old boys and the engineer after the teens told CBS2-TV that they received a text message from the engineer shortly before the crash.
The Los Angeles station said the teen was among a group of youths who befriended the engineer and asked him questions about his work.
NTSB board member Kitty Higgins said investigators did not find a cell phone belonging to the engineer in the wreckage but would request his cell phone records, as well as those of the boys.
"We are going to be obtaining records from their cell phones and from the cell phones of the deceased engineer and will use our subpoena authority or whatever other legal authority we need and to begin to determine exactly what happened and what if any role that might have played in this accident," she said Sunday.
The commuter train carrying 220 people rolled past stop signals Friday and barreled head-on into a Union Pacific train in Chatsworth. The accident, the nation's deadliest rail disaster in 15 years, left train cars so mangled that some bodies had to be removed in pieces. The crash injured 138 people.
Also Monday, the Metrolink spokeswoman who announced Saturday that the engineer's mistake caused the crash resigned. She said the railroad's board called her announcement "premature," even though NTSB officials later backed it up.
Metrolink did not return phone messages on the resignation.
NTSB investigators said Sunday that the train failed to stop at the final red signal, which forced the train onto a track at 42 mph where the Union Pacific freight was traveling in the opposite direction, Higgins said at a news conference.
Higgins said she believed the crash could have been prevented with technology that stops a train on the track when a signal is disobeyed. The technology was not in place where the collision occurred.
"I believe this technology could have prevented the accident. If he ran the signal the train would have been stopped. I've seen it tested. It makes a difference," she said.
Higgins said audio recordings from the commuter train indicate a period of silence as it passed the last two signals before the fiery wreck, a time when the engineer and the conductor should have been performing verbal safety checks.
She cautioned, however, that the train may have entered a dead zone where the recording was interrupted.
Higgins said the NTSB would measure the distance between the signals along the track on Monday. Investigators also want to interview the conductor, who was injured, about the recording, she said.
"He'll be able to tell us whether he recalls the engineer calling out and him confirming those signals," Higgins said.
Data show that the Metrolink train ran the red light signal with devastating consequences.
"The Metrolink train went through the signal, did not observe the red signal and essentially forced open this section of the switch," Higgins said. "The switch bars were bent like a banana. It should be perfectly straight."
Higgins said experts still must examine whether the signal was working properly and were in the Metrolink engineer's line of sight.
However, she stressed that obeying signals on the track was an engineer's responsibility at the helm of a train.
"My understanding is it is very unusual for an experienced engineer to run a red light," she said.
Metrolink said earlier Sunday that a dispatcher tried to warn the engineer of the commuter train that he was about to collide with a freight train but the call came too late. The dispatcher reached the conductor in the rear of the train, but by then it had already crashed into the oncoming Union Pacific train, Metrolink officials said.
However, the NTSB contradicted Metrolink's report. Higgins said that the dispatcher noticed something was wrong, but before he could contact the train, the conductor — who survived — called in to report the wreck.
The collision occurred on a horseshoe-shaped section of track in Chatsworth at the west end of the San Fernando Valley, near a 500-foot-long tunnel underneath Stoney Point Park.
The commuter train was heading from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to Ventura County. The impact rammed the Metrolink engine backward, jamming it deep into the first passenger car.
It was the deadliest passenger train crash since Sept. 22, 1993, when Amtrak's Sunset Limited plunged off a trestle into a bayou near Mobile, Ala., moments after the trestle was damaged by a towboat; 47 people were killed.
_____
 

ezdays

Out AZ way
The latest is that the engineer was busy text-messaging a railfan in the minutes before the crash. Yet another reason to ban text-messaging in moving vehicles. Sorry, one cannot multi-task when doing that, it apparently requires your full concentration to hit the right keys. But so does running a train or driving a car.
 

tetters

Rail Spiking Fool!
What a terrible mess. I saw some footage on the news this mornings. Looks like it was one helluva crash.
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
I can't understand why an engineer would be text messaging while operating a train! On the front page of the LA Times this morning they had an article about a guy who was a hero, rescuing fellow passengers when that idiot parked a gasoline soaked suv across the tracks to commit suicide and then changed his mind and bailed while the Metrolink train crashed into his vehicle killing 11 people a few years ago. Anyway the guy who was a hero last time was one of the fatalities this time!
 

TruckLover

Mack CH613 & 53' Trailer
I can't understand why an engineer would be text messaging while operating a train! On the front page of the LA Times this morning they had an article about a guy who was a hero, rescuing fellow passengers when that idiot parked a gasoline soaked suv across the tracks to commit suicide and then changed his mind and bailed while the Metrolink train crashed into his vehicle killing 11 people a few years ago. Anyway the guy who was a hero last time was one of the fatalities this time!

that is so sad :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:
 

Kevinkrey

Member
This is a horrible story, that easily could have been avoided. :cry: I have a phone, and I can hardly text when Im 100% focusing on the texting, its hard to believe that someone thinks they could do that while driving a PASSENGER TRAIN!
 
T

Tim Crowe

I don't know how signalling works where the accident was but in the U.K. to run a red light you first have had to pass a light warning you the next one is red. So you get two chances.

Generally, I find train drivers are very attentive.

However I have seen the odd one reading a newspaper. And last weekend we had one ignore our safety speed signs - a first.

Tim
 
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