80 collided with a tractor trailer in Virginia (9/10/15 14:00EDT)

[jis]

Early reports from Facebook posts suggests that train 80 has hit a tractor trailer at Skippers VA, near Emporia VA. So far no reports of injuries or derailment or any such. Awaiting more information at this time.

Suffice it to say that 90 is probably going to be delayed. The exact status or effect on 79 and 89 are not known at present. Amtrak live status map suggests that 89 has not crossed the location where 80 is sitting with speed of 0mph currently, suggesting that to be the point of the incident. So both 89 and 79 might face delays too. Of course if the incident is minor then things might clear up quickly too.

 

[thehog115]

Found a news article on it:

http://www.wral.com/amtrak-train-hits-vehicle-in-virginia/14889472/

"A northbound Amtrak train struck a tractor-trailer at the North Carolina-Virginia border on Thursday afternoon, authorities said Thursday. The Carolinian, which runs between Charlotte and New York, hit the truck at 12:52 p.m. as the train was crossing from Northampton County into Greensville County, Va. None of the 267 passengers aboard the train or crew members was hurt. No one in the flatbed truck was hurt either. Wilma Conway of Cary, who was on the train, said she heard a bang, and the train quickly came to a stop."

 

[Bob Dylan]

Good that no people were hurt, nor any of the train equipment.

The Moron driving the truck is included, but hopefully he won't be driving any more trucks!

Also, hopefully there will be no lawsuits against Amtrak and North Carolina due to his brain injury suffered long before the collision!

 

[Devil's Advocate]

The Moron driving the truck is included, but hopefully he won't be driving any more trucks! Also, hopefully there will be no lawsuits against Amtrak and North Carolina due to his brain injury suffered long before the collision!

The real question is how we stop these careless yahoo's from driving commercial vehicles in the first place.

 

[Lonestar648]

Always notice that media always states that Amtrak ran into the vehicle, as though they are always in the wrong. From a court case I read, when a vehicle crosses at a railroad crossing they are entering into and out of the Railroad ROW, therefore the vehicle runs into the train, not vice versa.

With the massive shortage of CDL drivers, more and more trucking companies are having to reduce their hiring standards. With more and more trucking companies clearing only a few pennies per revenue mile driven and with shippers demanding to pay less and less per mile shipped, unfortunately, we are facing an increase in such moronic driving behavior.

 

[jis]

In normal English usage, typically a stationary object is run into by a moving object. It does not necessarily have any connotation of fault. In this case the tractor trailer was stationary, stuck in the grade crossing, and the moving object, train 80, ran into it. I don't see anything more sinister than just the normal use of the English language here. it would be odd to say that a stationary truck ran into the moving Amtrak train.

BTW another incident, this time involving a trespasser near Cornwells Heights in Bensalem Township PA. The trespasser was killed. Still trying to figure out which train actually hit the trespasser. It was either 186 or 2163 from the description of the location. Looks like it may have been 186, since the eastbounds are still stuck. Both 2163 and 649 are moving.

Just got confirmation that it was an eastbound, so most likely 186.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

2163 just pulled into WIL

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Always notice that media always states that Amtrak ran into the vehicle, as though they are always in the wrong. From a court case I read, when a vehicle crosses at a railroad crossing they are entering into and out of the Railroad ROW, therefore the vehicle runs into the train, not vice versa. With the massive shortage of CDL drivers, more and more trucking companies are having to reduce their hiring standards. With more and more trucking companies clearing only a few pennies per revenue mile driven and with shippers demanding to pay less and less per mile shipped, unfortunately, we are facing an increase in such moronic driving behavior.

There is no logical reason for saying the train hit/struck/impacted or ran/crashed/plowed into the truck is incorrect or implies any sort of guilt. Even if we get really fancy and start building hypothetical constructs wherein a train is traveling at exactly the same speed and direction as the rotation of the Earth it still doesn't change the terminology. Commercial trucking has included careless and haphazard drivers for as long as I've been driving. If they're even worse today than in the past I honestly haven't been able to see the difference. I simply do my best to avoid anything larger than me because here in Texas might makes right.

 

[jis]

2163 just pulled into WIL

Yes, we have multiple verification now that the train primarily involved was 186. 2163 was held up for a while until the track was cleared of the investigation of the incident.

 

[KmH]

With the massive shortage of CDL drivers, more and more trucking companies are having to reduce their hiring standards.

This is not new.

The trucking industry has had a massive shortage of drivers for as long as I can remember.

Some companies driver turnover exceeds several hundred % per year.

It's why I became an OTR truck driver back in the 1990's.

I drove an OTR truck for 8 years. i had no accidents and quit driving shortly before I would had racked up 1,000,000 accident free miles.

The joke has long been that if a student truck driver can fog a mirror when they breath (ie, the student is alive) - they are qualified to drive a truck.

 

[Lonestar648]

I have worked with the trucking industry since the 1980's, seeing some companies with over 200% turn over, ignoring accidents, DWIs, etc. Some companies have bi-lingual dispatchers in Spanish, Eastern European Russian, etc. with many who cant read English, but the trucking companies got them their CDLs. Now there are many companies that have very stick hiring standards, low turnover, 3 year old or less tractors, state of the art technology (satellite comm., paperless logs, etc) 24 hour Auto-Dispatch on L or T Call. Due to this companies like the big Bentonville support a couple companies that don't care about the drivers, pay high rates, take the drivers the big companies will not hire, require drivers to deliver on time no matter what it takes, like exceed HOS. During the past ten years, each year gets worse with more and more good drivers coming off the road or never getting a rig.

 

[46Dover]

I heard that the truck actually stalled out on the tracks and didn't try to beat the train...

 

[Ryan]

The linked article says he stopped on the tracks due to cross traffic, rather than stop safely before the tracks until it was clear to get all the way across them.