Sketchy details. A tamper / surfacing machine had a collision with another vehicle. Direction, what hit what, etc not yet disclosed. Happened near BOS. 2nd incident in a week there.
This was probably two out of several vehicles moving in ‘convoy’ (at about 4:30 in the morning). One stopped short (supposedly for a ‘signal light’) and the one behind did not, and probably hit it at full travel speed. Appears to me that the sliding carriage has been deranged, so the machine’s frame may be broken or bent.
Multiple failures of PTC design methodology, and not too hard to understand some of the ‘holes in the Swiss cheese’ that lined up to facilitate this.
However, on CSX signals are not used for the movement of MofW equipment. The MofW Track Authorities will specify the track(s) the MofW vehicle(s) are to operate on and the location of where the vehicles may be crossing from one track to another. In the operation of CADS the route must be lined between the origin and destination points BEFORE the authority can be issued and OK’d.
From the number of accidents Amtrak has had in recent years with MofW personnel - they have a lot of education to do or they need some serious rule rewrites.