Silver Star 92 derailed by semi in Lakeland, FL (7-14-23)

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Thirdrail7 said:
In closing, I think people are driving around on mental, cruise control.
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The automobile of today are in themselves filled with distractions. The ease of navigation roads by GPS, just encourages less attention to signs. So yes the self driving automobile will sell well.

One of the bad habits I notice with truck drivers. (OTR type that stay away from the house a week or more.) Is that the drivers are FaceTime with there family while driving. Had to recover some equipment and keep finding phone mounts on the dash board behind the steering wheel. Perfect to be able to look down a see your family face while driving. You know while you’re traveling at 70 mph. (Sarcasm on) Like this trend will not caused any problems.
 
A couple thoughts. In relation to this specific incident, not too far from me is a stretch of railroad the has quite a few severely "humped" crossings. There are warning signs with simplified truck icon, a raised rail bed and red sparks coming from between the truck and the rail bed. I have no idea whether or not the sign is MUTCD standard, but they do seem a good, clear representation of high centering. Unfortunately, they are far enough away, about 60 miles, that I am unwilling to go out a grab a picture of them. That said, many posts here speak of drivers routinely ignoring warning signs.

Second, again in relation to this accident, are the railroad contact numbers that are posted at every public grade crossing. Those include the railroad's own identifying information. Calling that number puts the caller ought to put the driver in direct touch with the dispatching center and the dispatchers can stop trains approaching the crossing. Unfortunately, this feature is little known, and the signs are not always obvious. The ones I have seem are either on small blue signs on the crossing signal itself or stenciled on the side of the crossing's equipment shed, which is even less obvious than the little blue signs. First, there needs to be a widespread public information campaign telling people what to do in case they get stuck on a crossing and how to quickly find the contact information posted at every crossing, perhaps in conjunction with Operation Lifesaver. Second, the method of posting the contact info needs to become standardized and much more obvious.

Finally, personally, if I cannot fully clear a grade crossing due to traffic, I won't enter it until I can. Yes, this gets me honked at. I also think that is technically the law in most places. I do this at all crossings, even those I know are on seldom used branches where what trains there are would not be going more than 10 mph. And I know what are little branch lines and what are highly trafficked, higher speed main lines. Most people do not.
 
AmtrakBlue said:
May be more likely to attach them to 91 to take back to Hialeah for inspection/repairs.
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I disagree.

They’re pulling cargo (automobile) from under the rail cars. No way they’re going to hook it to a revenue train. Might be CSX or an Amtrak crew but it will be a hospital train that takes them away from the area. Even after a field inspection the risk would be much too high.
 
I just saw a report on the local Orlando ABC station. It was reported that the truck driver was given a citation and the amount of damage was in the millions.

Edit to add that the local NBC station reported that the damage to the track and train is between 6 and 10 million dollars.
 
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Palmland said:
Yes, report I saw said damage to track and equipment $6-10 million. But it appeared only the lead engine derailed?
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I heard the other engine also derailed, just not as dramatically. And those auto’s probably did damage to the coaches/etc
 
A piece of advice I received and try to pass on to those who understand. Always apply enough power before the crossing to your vehicle that if any failure of power you will coast over the hump. Actually applies to any crossing. Is especially important if you stop before the crossing waiting for a traffic light or just traffic so you can clear the crossing once you start over the crossing.
 
Just-Thinking-51 said:
My question is now why this truck was on this route. It’s always possible that the hump was rebuilt higher recently. However humps are to be avoided by the low frame crowd. Such as this car carrier. Customer know of the correct route. I have seen dispatch that say call customer for correct route.

My experience calling the railroad emergency line directly did not fill me confidence in the event there was a real emergency. (Grade crossing arms broken.) They had a hard time figuring out where I was, and who to transfer me to. Those ID numbers on the sign don’t seem to match the ID that the railroad uses.

Several brands of GPS have been developed for truckers. All I have used will tell/show a railroad crossing approaching. None give data about the hump.
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There is a free app at least for Android phones called Railroad Crossing Locator. It uses your GPS location and it shows the grade crossing number which I assume is based on the FRA database. Like the closest crossing to me is ID: 057193L on the BNSF Brush Sub. A 4-lane crossing is now being upgraded and reworked is ID: 057191X also BNSF. A highly complained about crossing for being blocked for extended times is a UP Greeley Sub ID: 804435S. I have only had to use once for signal/crossing arms not working (luckily it was a minimally travel road. But it is convenient to have "just in case". I also keep BNSF, UP and Amtrak police departments emergency numbers programmed in my phone.
 
I feel like at least some onus needs to be on either the DOT or the RRs to deal with some of these "tricky" crossings and get them into a standard wherever possible (and I'll admit that there are some badly-designed/badly-placed crossings where this might not be feasible, but all too often this is a case of deferred maintenance catching up).

As to those crossings that can't be safely navigated by trucks...the winning move there is (probably) to just require the trucks to use an alternative routing (if possible...yes, there are some cases where there's no alternative to an unfixable crossing, but I suspect those are few and far between).

Edit: Also, adding signage to tell folks how much room there is between the crossing and the next required stop (if below X) would be a good idea, so they can reasonably judge if they can make it if there are one or two cars across the crossing (or if there are none). Another idea would be to set up some sort of "garage door detector" that would detect a stopped vehicle so as to (1) yell at the vehicle's driver to move and/or (2) signal the RR that there's an issue and potentially start issuing slow-down signals.
 
Thirdrail7 said:
I have an opinion, and it may prove to unpopular, but I believe we have someone that may have extensive road experience (looks in the direction of @Just-Thinking-51) to validate or refute my personal observations.

That being said, I think there are a few levels of technology that have added to the dilemma we're seeing. The first and main being, a lack of observation of the prevailing physical characteristics. It is my opinion that a lot of people are moving about via muscle memory and GPS technology. The drivers of today probably aren't as versed on observing the physical characteristics of their route. They are often following instructions or responding to commands ("in 1000 feet, turn left" or "in one mile, merge onto freeway such and such"), using routine "muscle memory" (I've made this trip several times so I know to turn at this sign) versus using personal observation ("oh, there's a gas station where I make this turn," or "the high voltage transmission lines take us to town center.)

As such, they are more accustomed to following the prompts instead of actively observing the many signs that are attempting to aid/alert them. They see the stop sign, but not the RR and grade crossing signs that preceded them.

This also impacts the old stand by of "Stop, Look and Listen." I routinely come to a stop at grade crossings. (only to get honked at and almost rear ended) because I am painfully aware of the fact grade crossing protection can, and does fail. At marked and protected crossing, I think people have been lulled into a false sense of security. When I approach, I brake, turn down my radio and roll down my windows as I approach the crossing, which leads me to my last point.

The reason I roll down my windows and turn down the radio, is to make sure I can hear the train if the protection has failed. The cars of yesteryear, may have been built like tanks, but the radios (by todays standards) were ludicrously low and "tinny." The cars of today are sealed, and drown out a lot of the outside noise. Combine that with a high powered audio system, and train horn that may be in between toots as you approach, and you may be in for trouble. Big trouble.

In closing, I think people are driving around on mental, cruise control.
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My observation from recent road trips, the latest April-May to Virginia from Texas, and return by another route is that distracted driving is hugely increased. I saw numerous people driving with the characteristic Text wiggle (i.e, trying to control the vehicle with the knee while texting with both hands, then correcting when the vehicle goes across the lane dots or the rough side stripe. And yes, the tech issue is there, too. Not just on the roads: the collisions of those Navy destroyers a while back was partly due to relying on the GPS, and not looking out the window.
Defensive driving is absolutely required. Slow down, always have an escape route should a furball develop ahead of you, don't jump when the light turns green, look for trains. An 80-mph train is moving a lot faster than it seems to be, due to foreshortening.
 
This derailment just keeps on giving . Meteor canceled due to equipment unavailability.

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As of 11:58 am ET, Due to equipment unavailability issues, Silver Meteor Train 98, which is scheduled to depart Miami (MIA) on 7/18 en route to New York (NYP), is now canceled. For further assistance, please call/text 1-800-USA-RAIL.


12:00 PM · Jul 17, 2023
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