METRA Derailment on South Side

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AlanB

Engineer
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Joined
Aug 22, 2002
Messages
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Location
Queens, New York
Emergency crews were on the scene of a commuter train derailment on Chicago's South Side, local media outlets reported Saturday.
At least five cars of Metra train were seen off the track, WMAQ reported. A witness told the TV station that it appeared a part of a bridge collapsed, causing the derailment.
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The full, but very brief story as details are still coming in, can be found at MSNBC.
 
Unfortunately, it sounds as if the NTSB is suspecting that the engineer didn't respond to his signals. Suggesting that he took a 10 mph crossover at 69. :(
 
tubaallen said:
Unfortunately, it sounds as if the NTSB is suspecting that the engineer didn't respond to his signals. Suggesting that he took a 10 mph crossover at 69. :(
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Yup, it looks that way.

What's interesting though is that while he was new to METRA, only 45 days on the job (not including training time), he's not a novice engineer. He worked as a freight engineer for over 5 years, so it will be interesting to see just what comes out of this investigation.
 
I just read on the Usenet Rail Group that lawsuits for the two deceased passengers have now been filed against METRA by the same attorney that handled the previous accident at this location.

Do we know whay the speed limit was 10 MPH in this area?
 
MrFSS said:
I just read on the Usenet Rail Group that lawsuits for the two deceased passengers have now been filed against METRA by the same attorney that handled the previous accident at this location.
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Actually there are 3 lawsuits already pending. The local CBS station has been a great source of details on this accident, including video of the scene.

You can find the story here.

MrFSS said:
Do we know whay the speed limit was 10 MPH in this area?
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Apparently that's the speed rating for the switches in that interlocking. Not sure why they haven't put in higher speed switches, especially after the first accident 2 years ago, but nonetheless, they haven't.
 
You know it seems to me that if two accidents are occuring at the same spot, similar incidents, similar everything (with the exception of Metra's first fatalities in its 20+ year history), that something isn't right at this location. I don't know if they run on cab signal at this location, or if it's Absolute Wayside CTC, but something ain't right.
 
It's not so much the switches themselves as the turnout. It is a tight crossover between the two mains, and therefore only 10 mph. I can only suspect that there was some sort of signal malfunction in order for it to happen twice in two years, and for it to be at such a high speed. Had the engineer just lost track of what he was doing, he would have brought it down a lot less than 70 mph once he saw the diverging signal.
 

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