Amtrak

sonocativo

sonocativo

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Apparently Amtrak hit a backhoe in Georgia and derailed, damaging the tracks and killed 2 of the 340someodd passengers. They are saying that Amtrak will be shut down completely across the states til repairs are made, so wondering now if I am going to have to drive to pick up my daughter to get her back home as she is using the Amtrak for her trip to visit her sister....
 
It is a train that goes to Savannah, GA. It derailed on the Northeast Corridor between Philly and Wilmington, DE.

Only the front wheels of the engine came off the rails. Engine and cars are all upright.

The coach car behind the engine had damage from the equipment that was hit.

The 2 people killed were NOT on the train. They were Amtrak maintenance workers who were working near the tracks the train was running on. Somehow a piece of equipment, backhoe, got in the way of the moving train.

Let's not speculate what caused it but instead wait till the NTSB investigates and gives out official information.

As to safety of the trains, more people die in car accidents than on planes, trains and busses.
 
LoveBlue said:
It is a train that goes to Savannah, GA. It derailed on the Northeast Corridor between Philly and Wilmington, DE.

Only the front wheels of the engine came off the rails. Engine and cars are all upright.

The coach car behind the engine had damage from the equipment that was hit.

The 2 people killed were NOT on the train. They were Amtrak maintenance workers who were working near the tracks the train was running on. Somehow a piece of equipment, backhoe, got in the way of the moving train.

Let's not speculate what caused it but instead wait till the NTSB investigates and gives out official information.

As to safety of the trains, more people die in car accidents than on planes, trains and busses.
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Yahoo news has a picture, the front of the engine is smashed pretty good, those backhoes are not a light duty piece of machinery, took a good hit.
 
Yeah, that engine took a beating. Haven't heard yet how the engineer is doing, physically. I'm sure emotionally s/he's not well, especially since it was Amtrak employees who were killed.
 
LoveBlue said:
Yeah, that engine took a beating. Haven't heard yet how the engineer is doing, physically. I'm sure emotionally s/he's not well, especially since it was Amtrak employees who were killed.
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dont know if it was the engineer? But they stated the train took a long time to stop, like at the next depot or something?
 
I haven't heard the speed yet, but that area is a high speed area (over 100 mph). It may have had a lower speed due to the track work, but it would still be fast enough to take time to slow down and stop. Trains can't stop on a dime, ya know. ;)

There are always rail fans/foamers and people who know nothing about trains spewing out bad info when these things happen. As I said before, let's just wait for the investigators to report on their findings.
 
It sounds like there is communication error somewhere... like LB said.. let's wait and see what NTSB finds the cause for this incident.
 
BTW, this train has the safety "equipment" that prevents the train from going over the allowed speed limit, so no, the engineer could not have been going too fast.
 
Looks like the incident is not far from where the major derailment happened last year when the engineer went over 100mph on a curve.

LoveBlue said:
BTW, this train has the safety "equipment" that prevents the train from going over the allowed speed limit, so no, the engineer could not have been going too fast.
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We had the bad winds here last night and today. The crew may have been cleaning up debris from the winds. Most likely the backhoe and workers were on an adjacent track. I'll wait for the NTSB's report to find out what actually happened.
 
Calvin said:
Looks like the incident is not far from where the major derailment happened last year when the engineer went over 100mph on a curve.
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Last year's accident happened in north Philadelphia. This one happened in Chester, which is south of Philadelphia. Yeah, for y'all out west, it's close. But for us mid-atlantic peeps, it's not. :p
 
Ah gotcha. :)

LoveBlue said:
Last year's accident happened in north Philadelphia. This one happened in Chester, which is south of Philadelphia. Yeah, for y'all out west, it's close. But for us mid-atlantic peeps, it's not. :p
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My daughter(R) and her older half sis (L)
Enjoying the weather and more on her vacation.
 

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