Amtrak 21 or 22 Accident

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Reno89502

Reno89502

Service Attendant
Joined
Jul 29, 2007
Messages
124
Location
Hartford, CT
The preliminary details are that either Amtrak 21 or 22 has hit a semi in Texas. The driver of the semi was killed.ImageUploadedByAmtrak Forum1452815395.307633.jpg
 
I was not able to get a picture of it quick enough, but it looks like the engine, baggage car, and the trans dorm are blackened from the fire.
 
This is #22(14)/ #21 is in the Austin Station. No other info available that I can find other than a post on Train orders.( I'm not a member so can't see link to media story)

Hopefully the P-42 and Transdorm are OK as are the Passengers and Crew!

RIP to the Semi-Driver, trying to save 5 minutes can result in heading for different place in a hurry!
 
tomfuller said:
4600 block of Scyene Road in Mequite. News story I saw did not report condition of 18 wheeler driver. No serious injuries among the Amtrak passengers.
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The address appears to be 4600 East Scyene Road in Mesquite. On Google Earth, the address shows what looks like a gravel storage facility with a private grade crossing with cross bucks which is presumably where the truck was either exiting or entering.

The photo in the Fox 4 news story show the blackened P-42, baggage car and Trans-dorm, but the cars look intact. The news reports are that the accident started a grass fire, so the baggage and Trans-dorm may just have gotten covered by external smoke. The baggage car is a Heritage car, so at least one of the new baggage cars did not get damaged.

Still, two fatal grade crossing collisions on the same day? Just how many serious grade crossing collisions has Amtrak had in the past 2-3 months? Has been a bad streak.
 
The JAX report ends with the fact that Amtrak has been involved in 3 of the 7 RR crossing accidents in the JAX area. I don't like their implication, hidden or otherwise. The problem is the drivers. The SUV driver should never have moved forward onto the tracks until there was space to totally cross over.
 
Would be interesting to see how many freight train vs. truck/car accidents there have been over the years. There's an education campaign out there, and any way, it's kind of "common sense" not to try to race a vehicle that is bigger than you, heavier than you, and takes much more time and distance to actually STOP.

But I guess not enough people had or remember Physics class to think about things like momentum.

And yeah, I don't like the implication that it's somehow the engineer's fault that he couldn't stop his train on a dime because someone chose to ignore the warning signals.
 
Lonestar & Fillyjonk:

I agree about the very subtle implied dig at Amtrak for its involvement in these accidents. I noticed it too. They say Amtrak has been involved in 3 of 7 accidents, but they ignore the fact that motorists have been involved in 7 of the 7 accidents. So what's the predominant causative factor?

Train 52 arrived in Lorton today around 12:40 pm, a 3:40 late.
 
FormerOBS said:
I agree about the very subtle implied dig at Amtrak for its involvement in these accidents. I noticed it too. They say Amtrak has been involved in 3 of 7 accidents, but they ignore the fact that motorists have been involved in 7 of the 7 accidents. So what's the predominant causative factor?
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I must be in the minority here, but I saw no implication about Amtrak at all in the reporting of this statistic. In a report about an accident involving Amtrak, it seems completely reasonable to me to report how many accidents have occurred in the recent past and how many of those involved Amtrak. The facts are the facts. (Assuming the reporter got the facts correct, which is another issue entirely.) I seriously doubt some local reporter has an agenda against Amtrak.
 
I agree it's subtle, and it may not be intentional. But I have often hAd people ask me "why does Amtrak have so many accidents?" If the questioner was truly informed, the question would be something like "why do so many people drive in front of Amtrak trains?" Through my Amtrak career, I have had nervous first-timers ask me how likely it would be that we would hit somebody. I seriously doubt that Greyhound drivers are asked that question. People don't ask these questions unless there is a nagging question in the backs of their minds. In short, Amtrak must live with negative perceptions created by people who cause dangerous, expensive, and unnecessary accidents, often losing their own lives in the process.

This is the reason that many regular Forum members believe the media never emphasize blame adequately; the courts are entirely too lenient with the perpetrators of these accidents; and we wish Amtrak would sue for full restitution plus punitive damages. We also probably won't be entirely satisfied until the news media shout to the world, DON'T FOUL THE DAMN TRACKS!
 
FormerOBS, thanks for your perspective! To me it just seems kind of obvious that Amtrak is not at fault for a grade crossing accident like this but your experience suggests many folks lack this understanding for whatever reason. I read somewhere on AU in the last day or so that the last couple of weeks Amtrak has had more than its share of accidents with vehicles and plead guilty to wondering why "Amtrak has so many accidents?" You are absolutely correct that the question is more correctly put as to why so many people drive in front of Amtrak trains!
 
FormerOBS said:
I agree it's subtle, and it may not be intentional. But I have often hAd people ask me "why does Amtrak have so many accidents?" If the questioner was truly informed, the question would be something like "why do so many people drive in front of Amtrak trains?" Through my Amtrak career, I have had nervous first-timers ask me how likely it would be that we would hit somebody. I seriously doubt that Greyhound drivers are asked that question. People don't ask these questions unless there is a nagging question in the backs of their minds. In short, Amtrak must live with negative perceptions created by people who cause dangerous, expensive, and unnecessary accidents, often losing their own lives in the process.

This is the reason that many regular Forum members believe the media never emphasize blame adequately; the courts are entirely too lenient with the perpetrators of these accidents; and we wish Amtrak would sue for full restitution plus punitive damages. We also probably won't be entirely satisfied until the news media shout to the world, DON'T FOUL THE DAMN TRACKS!
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You never see the news media report, "Automobile strikes train while crossing track late..." It is always, train hits such and such!
 
Yesterday, as in many previous days, I waited at a crossing for a four-way stop to clear on the other side, only to have the car in front of me stop on the tracks, completely blocked by the car in front of them. Y'all are correct in that most drivers of all ages have no clue where they are. I backed up one car length to give them an escape option, but nothing happened, except the driver behind me had its horn blown. Sadly most folks are so used to their "government" protecting them that they have stopped thinking for themselves years ago and are no longer taking responsibility for their own lives.
 
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I live in the Dallas media market and I heard more about the truck/train collision on the radio (KRLD) news. Their implication was that "it's the asphalt company's fault" - the trucks were pulling onto a private road owned by the company which the tracks crossed, and while public crossings must have crossing arms and warning lights, private roads are not required to, and apparently it was the company's choice not to have them. (I had not known it was a private road). Apparently there were two trucks, the first got through, the second one didn't. Yes, the driver should have stopped, looked, and listened after the first truck went through, but it's not quite as egregious as the accidents I've heard where someone drove AROUND lowered crossing arms - there weren't any.

there might be, after this. I don't know.

I was always taught if you are in traffic and are crossing tracks, you wait until there is enough room on the other side for you to get safely across, and what's more, you "stop, look, and listen" to be sure there is no train coming (I think there was even a short cartoon about that). I suppose the second driver was focused on getting in to the asphalt plant and it cost him his life.

But yeah. If I owned some kind of a plant and a train tracks crossed my entrance road, I think I'd look into what I'd have to do to get lights and crossing arms put up....
 
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The headline for the Jacksonville story read, "Driver Killed After Train Crashes Into SUV". Are we blaming the train for "crashing" into the SUV? Strictly speaking, it could be said that the train did not crash at all, since there was evidently very little damage to the locomotive. What crashed (i.e., was destroyed) was the driver and his SUV.

As an alternative, how about "SUV Driver Parks on Tracks And Is Killed By Train"?

Tom
 
I remember after the Fox River Grove tragedy outside Chicago, school bus doesn't get across the crossing, rear of bus is hit by express train. Unknowledgeable public officials were asking publically why trains didn't stop at each crossing to check for cars? These people then and now perpetuate the untruth that cars came first and the RR's are at automatically at fault. In a law suit the judge correctly ruled that the RR was in place long before the roads and the towns, so crossing design problems belong to the Highway Departments.
 
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