A few puzzlers from the report/video:
1) Why no mention of the train #2 cab camera in the report? Did train #1 have a cab camera? Were cab cameras (recording audio, no less) common in 2006? Did BNSF require them?
2) The sketch in the report appears at odds with the text in the report. For example, the report text states in two places that three of the seven locomotives on train # 1 derailed, while the sketch seems to this ignorant reader to show that five of the seven lead units of train #1 derailed. Were some of the locomotives in the middle of the consist somewhere? Perhaps units 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7 were locomotives, 2 and 4 were the tank cars mentioned in the report, and the other two locomotives were somewhere else? Are we assumed to know that a unit owner with a trailing X indicates a non-powered car?
3) The crew of train #2 describe having a conversation about whether or not to jump in the seconds before impact, but the cab camera, which appears to be recording cab sounds, doesn't have that conversation. (Or the usual "oh carp" or words to that effect that end most cockpit voice recordings.)
4) Why the jumps in the cab video? The most interesting time, it seems, when train #2 rounded the corner and train #1 first came into sight, is cut from the video.
5) A previous commenter states that jumping is considered bad performance, I guess, but the crew of train #2 certainly seemed to think it was a reasonable choice, stating that they only didn't jump because their train was going too fast.
6) Interestingly, the three crew members who ejected sustained only minor injuries; the most seriously injured crew member, requiring lengthy hospitalization, was the engineer of train #2, who decided to ride it out. Of course, at 40 mph, he was faced with a different set of choices than the crew of train #1 at 20 mph.
Just musing,
Ainamkartma