Amtrak trains vs pedestrians or motor vehicles; accidents/fatalities

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"The train, which was traveling from New Orleans to Los Angeles, had 81 passengers onboard at the time of the crash, said Woods, who added that the train remained upright and intact on the rails following the crash. "


81 passengers?!?!? Yikes....
 
"The train, which was traveling from New Orleans to Los Angeles, had 81 passengers onboard at the time of the crash, said Woods, who added that the train remained upright and intact on the rails following the crash. "


81 passengers?!?!? Yikes....
The upper level capacity on a Superliner coach is 62 passengers; 42 in sleeper. What's the consist east of SAS? one sleeper, two coaches?
 
"The train, which was traveling from New Orleans to Los Angeles, had 81 passengers onboard at the time of the crash, said Woods, who added that the train remained upright and intact on the rails following the crash. "


81 passengers?!?!? Yikes....
It's Amtrak's passenger safety program. Putting lids on capacity and on demand reduces the numbers of passengers affected by accidents.
 
"The train, which was traveling from New Orleans to Los Angeles, had 81 passengers onboard at the time of the crash, said Woods, who added that the train remained upright and intact on the rails following the crash. "
The description makes it west bound and Van Hut Lane is well east of Houston and just west of the Sam Houston Tollway, so it had not yet arrived in Houston. Presumably the passenger loading will increase significantly at that point. The way the article was written it appears that the car ran into the train. Also, since it said that two passengers were transported to a local hospital it would seem even very likely that it is a car hit train case, and that these passengers were in the lower level at/near the point of impact. If it broke out a window, the car may have to be "bad ordered" and taken out of the train at Houston, or even hauled empty to San Antonio.

Since both "driver and passenger of the car were ejected" it suggests they were not wearing seatbelts either, which would probably have made no difference in their outcome, but it does suggest a lack of good sense about driveing and riding in a car in matters other than just going around crossing gates.
 
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Every time there is accident on news, the number of passengers onboard makes Amtrak look pathetic.
if this isn’t a bad PR then I don’t know what is.
Not the accident itself but number of pax
 
Every time there is accident on news, the number of passengers onboard makes Amtrak look pathetic.
if this isn’t a bad PR then I don’t know what is.
Not the accident itself but number of pax
It's just under 50%. That's not so terrible.

It's way better than Arlo's CONO. :)
 
I had to attend a day-long Drivers Education "refresher" course to get a ticket off my record; the instructor was talking about cars trying to beat a train at a crossing. He said "Remember - a tie goes to the train." He went on add "My father was an engineer for freight trains for 30 years. In those 30 years, he tied 4 cars.. won them all..."
 
UPDATED

Two people died after being struck by an Amtrak train Sunday in Biddeford, a Biddeford Police Department dispatcher confirmed to NEWS CENTER Maine.

In an update from Biddeford police on Monday, Chief Roger Beaupre said, “The preliminary investigation indicates that two persons were lying on the tracks as the train approached. Based on the available video feed, the persons sat up, hugged one another, and were struck by the train.”




https://www.newscentermaine.com/art...treet/97-b84a41bb-8f23-420d-b85c-55d24fbc416b
https://wgme.com/news/local/two-people-hit-by-amtrak-in-biddeford
https://www.wmtw.com/article/two-people-hit-and-killed-by-amtrak-in-biddeford/39937002
https://whdh.com/news/amtrak-train-from-boston-to-maine-kills-2-people-on-tracks-in-biddeford/
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/nati...-and-killed-by-amtrak-train-in-maine/2714639/
 
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I really can't comprehend how this happens, unless it's deliberately ''suicide by train....'' (shudder)

I understand the morons that go around crossing gates thinking they can beat the oncoming train, they're impatient idiots that deserve what happens. But - pedestrians?

First of all, I admit I used to walk along mainline tracks when I was a youngster. There was a great fishing spot in a canal near my parents house in Miami that was only accessible if you walked the Seaboard mainline for a ways to get to it. So my friends and I took that route a lot. Both freight trains and passenger trains used it, you definitely had to, ''stop, look, and listen.'' We took many trips down those tracks, none of us ever came close to being hit.

If you must use railroad tracks as a walkway, how on earth is someone not aware of an approaching train? The headlight can be seen a long way off, you can hear the horn a ways off as well, and that growling rumbling sound as it gets nearer.

The only thing I can think of is the fad nowadays of always having to be entertained, and people wearing earbuds, going blissfully on their way not being able to hear anything except the sound made by the earbuds.
 
I really can't comprehend how this happens, unless it's deliberately ''suicide by train....'' (shudder)

I understand the morons that go around crossing gates thinking they can beat the oncoming train, they're impatient idiots that deserve what happens. But - pedestrians?

First of all, I admit I used to walk along mainline tracks when I was a youngster. There was a great fishing spot in a canal near my parents house in Miami that was only accessible if you walked the Seaboard mainline for a ways to get to it. So my friends and I took that route a lot. Both freight trains and passenger trains used it, you definitely had to, ''stop, look, and listen.'' We took many trips down those tracks, none of us ever came close to being hit.

If you must use railroad tracks as a walkway, how on earth is someone not aware of an approaching train? The headlight can be seen a long way off, you can hear the horn a ways off as well, and that growling rumbling sound as it gets nearer.

The only thing I can think of is the fad nowadays of always having to be entertained, and people wearing earbuds, going blissfully on their way not being able to hear anything except the sound made by the earbuds.
Actually, read the 1st article:

They weren't walking on the tracks, they were lying on them, and hugged each other as the train approached. Clearly a suicide pact, IMO.
 
I say this as a person who works inside the newspaper industry, but I really object to the AP headline: Amtrak train kills 2 people on tracks in Biddeford. When does anybody write that a car killed two pedestrians?
 
I say this as a person who works inside the newspaper industry, but I really object to the AP headline: Amtrak train kills 2 people on tracks in Biddeford. When does anybody write that a car killed two pedestrians?
Well, just randomly off a web search of "car kills pedestrians":

Car Kills Pedestrian In Crash In South Sacramento (yahoo.com)

There's more:
car kills predestrians at DuckDuckGo

Self-Driving Uber Car Kills Pedestrian in Arizona, Where Robots Roam - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Car strikes, kills pedestrian in Ashford – KIRO 7 News Seattle

..anyway, you get the idea...
 
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