Comments on: L.A. Train Wreckage Search Ends; 25 Dead

Nation's Deadliest Rail Disaster In 15 Years Blamed On Engineer Error

[hissteps4u]

Think about it the infrastructure has not had a Major over haul in over 50 years. Roads in general are horriable and train traffic is abismal costly to maintain and poorly kept up to minimal standards.

It is high time for America to once again reinvent itself if the dammmm Politicians can get over themselves and do something for the good of all rather than the constant bickering and infighting which is all washington is any more with its two party crapola.

It is a pitty the public does not have the true grit to truly bring and force change in washington which needs change so badly.

America is sinking slowly in its own cess pool....

[cam9457]

I am thinking about what I just said. I''''m thinking about what I saw and what I heard while hauling coke heads, too. The engineer I saw snorting in the back of the van was on the way to work that morning. Maybe people you work with don''''t use cocaine, although I seriously doubt that, but almost all of the ones I hauled did and they talked about it while in the van like I wasn''''t even there.
If we are involved in a rail accident and drugs are found in our system we are personaly held to criminal charges, and I agree with this policy. drug testing is done randomly by the company as well as the FRA. On average I get it 3-5 times a year. Watch what you say as far as acussing the engineer of being high. Secondly, you saw this man use drugs and said nothing and let him operate a freight train?

[rational_1]

Which makes you wonder, just HOW SAFE is the rail system when all it takes is one incapacitated engineer to cause a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train?
Posted by txgrouch2006 at 08:20 PM : Sep 13, 2008

You''re right - and I agree with you that more than one person should be up in front on these trains. I was just making the point that it''s much too early to vilify the engineer who drove this train. He may be to blame, but let''s get the facts first before crucifying him. Remember that his family lost one of their own as well.

[cam9457]

I use to drive a van, hauling railroad workers from point A to point B when they were out of hours. I hauled conductors, engineers and brakemen. I met only a few of them who did not use cocaine. I even saw one of them take a snort in the back of the van. One guy said, "You can''''t snort too much coke." They talked about it like it was no big deal. That''''s probably what caused this wreck. The conductor and engineer were probably snorting in the cabin.

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My industry does have one of the most strict zero tolerence policies of any transportation industry. Think about what you just said and try to use your head, if I''m a conductor and I''m in between freight cars I''m I going to trust my life with someone on drugs? If a member of a train and engine crew even suspects another member of his crew may be high or drunk or whatever, he''s gone. We have families too that would like us to come home the same way we left

[cam9457]

The video they mentioned having would have been on the freight train, it''s called "RailView". The freight RR''s use it to prove negligence on the part of motorist''s in grade crossing accidents. It is required by federal law in all newer freight locomotives and should show at the moment before impact if the engineer of the commuter was holding a cell phone or not or whatever was going on. Every locomotive also has a "black box" that is the same thing found in aircraft that records everything going on with the locomotive, if air brakes were applied and how much, speed, if the emergency brake was applied, dynamic braking and other things useful to investigators after a wreck along with the rail view footage. It''s a shame that it always takes the loss of life for things to change. I recently got into a heated argument with some of my companies officials about a rail bridge that connects Philadelphia to Camden NJ. The bridge was built around a hundred years ago and has been deemed condemed, but my company just knows it cheaper to pay the fine each time we bring the deadlist chemicals known to man kind by the billions of gallons at a time over the bridge than to stop using the bridge and fix it. The bridge was NEVER intended to hold anywhere near the amount of weight of a freight train. The list goes on and on, I wish I worked for the F.R.A.

[eggy1620]

Another train wreck is happening right now. At the Colluseum.

[bdrlnt4rl]

Also the company should be to blame if they do not put conductors in the engine with the engineer! It is a two man job, 4 eyes working together, 2 brains and 4 ears, to do a job that will save lives. Dont blame the engineer if he was alone, blame the company for not hiring enough staff to man the trains!

[txgrouch2006]

Meanwhile in Linfen, China - a landslide of iron ore waste from an illegal mine has buried AN ENTIRE VILLAGE and killed 254 people.

And stuff like that happens EVERY DAY in China.

Globalization still has a long, long way to go before it makes us the same as China. But they''re trying as hard as they can.

[txgrouch2006]

Have you considered the possibility that he may have had a heart attack, stroke or been incapacitated in some other way and that this is not negligence, but just a tragedy all around?
Posted by rational_1 at 07:53 PM : Sep 13, 2008

Which makes you wonder, just HOW SAFE is the rail system when all it takes is one incapacitated engineer to cause a head-on collision between a passenger train and a freight train?

As other knowledgable posters have pointed out, there ARE procedures in place to address this issue. If it wasn''t done, WHY?

CORPORATE GREED and COST-CUTTING TO SQUEEZE OUT THAT EXTRA BUCK OF PROFIT. Pure and simple.

Because that''s what it ALWAYS is.

[cam9457]

It''s a shame that the "people puller" trains don''t have the same rules as those on freight trains. I work for a class 1 freight railroad and our rules stipulate there must always be at least two crew members aboard our trains, two sets of eyes seeing every signal and having to call them out on the radio every time. Just makes me wonder why engineers hauling the most precious cargo(human life) don''t have to have a conductor in the cab as do freight trains? But, that won''t be for long either as the freight carriers are fighting to remove the conductor from freight trains as well, one less set of eyes...
My thoughts are with the families of this tradegy