At risk of igniting a new firestorm:
I can’t open that link because I am not a subscriber. Is there another link perhaps from the NTSB?
Nevermind, I found one.
It is very interesting that the NTSB has chosen to speculate that a sleep disorder might have been the cause. I guess that has become their default conclusion for any accident where no cause other than a lack of human response can be found.
It seems like the NTSB has clearly become part of the sleep disorder activism that will ultimately determine which employees are affected by sleep disorders and either treat or reassign them to solve the safety problem.
The NTSB report addresses multiple issues. The key matter seems to be improper maintenance of the equipment by the trucking company.
Those at this site who have significant RR experience felt this was the likely analysis, unless something very unusual came to light.
It is sad that RR’s (and others) have to spend significant time and $$$ defending lawsuits because plaintiff attorneys look for anyone with assets. If they were paid by the hour, and if the looser had to pay all costs of the winner, much of this and other litigation would diminish.
Somehow, I feel 11 out of 16 brakes being minimally if at all effective as well as inattention of the truck driver had a major causative factor in this incident.
At the risk of being acused of ‘flogging s dead horse’. I think that NTSB is probably one of the more credible agencies involved in these incident investigations. Don’t sell them too short, IMHO.
I find troubling the mention of the amount of time it took the truck driver to react to the warnings provided. Flashing Crossing lights, a blowing locomotive air horn and the inablitity to process the mental picture of an approaching train.
The Trucking Company’s apparently flawed (?) maintenance program; referencing the truck’s braking system. Then thee is (in my mind) a potential on the part of the driver’s ability to process and r
Here is a Primer on Truck ABS Systems from someone that deals with them all the Time along with their Braking systems. Here is what the FMCSA gives us before they consider a Brake is Out of Adjust just one half an inch from 1.5 Inches so a Max of 2 Inches. Then at 2.5 inches your placed OOS. Most Auto Slack Adjusters work at 2.25 inches. Then on the ABS systems he with his Model Year of Both the Tractor and Trailers he was pulling gotten a Light right in front of His Face that is an automatic OOS Violation if your driving with one. However on that one there the Computers have Failsafe if the driver is running down the road and loses a sensor they rely on the Other ones in the System to decide if the wheel the missing sensor is on is Locking up on or Not. Different Brake Chambers some one at the shop might have put a long Stroke 30 on instead of a regular Stroke 30 it can happen. The Brake Drums being Mismatched sorry but you do not change all axles as a set unless you need to. If one or 2 was over Tolerance then change them a Drum for a Trailer is about 400 Bucks EACH.
Sleep Disorders maybe called the FMCSA is hammering all drivers on that heck they want to make a sleep Study Mandatory for CDL and Medical Card Renewals now. A lot of the Problem is the Irregular Hours we do run with No Places to Park and when we do find one we get forced out by Cities that do not care or Shippers that do not care. I have lost track of all the times I was forced out by a Shipper with No Time on my Clocks to move and the only place I could find was a street to park on and then had to risk a Parking ticket. If you think I got a restful night of sleep your Nuts.
I hope the final report will give a comparsion of braking that would have probably occurred if all the systems noted were inop out of service and a fully functioning brake system.
that being the case maybe it is time for trucking companys to learn the error of their ways. The state of Nevada should prosecute everyone from the chairman / owner down thru the maintenance man for 6 counts of 1st degree manslauder. That might send a powerful message to other trucking companys to police their operations better. If that doesn’t work the feds may be able to do the same especially since one fatality was a foreign national. Probably wouldn’t get the message to independent truckers.
That’s a bit of an understatement. (I also read Abstract_Miriam_NV.pdf )
Looks like the trucking company in question (and their insurance carrier) will be paying some major legal bills. I’d wonder if the truck vs train accident rate would drop if trucking companies were required to carry 10M$ or higher liability insurance for grade crossing accidents.
- Erik
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The truck skidded 300 feet and was still moving around 25 mph when it hit the train. We don’t know how far it would have skidded beyond the 300 foot range because it stopped skidding when it hit the train.
The NTSB says the truck would have been able to stop within 230 feet if the brakes were all in proper order. That would not be what is referred to as vehicle stopping distance, which is the sum of reaction time (distance) plus braking distance. In the case of this Nevada crash, the reaction time is excluded because we are only looking at the effects of the brakes, and that is only evaluated as braking distance. So the NTSB says that the braking distance should have been 230 feet.
The report does not clarify how they arrived at the conclusion that the apparent excess stopping distance was due to mechanical problems with the brakes. It is also not clear how they arrived at the 230 ft. figure for normal braking distance.
The Nevada driver’s manual says that the braking distance for a car traveling 55 mph is 168 feet. The truck in this crash was traveling 58 mph. So it appears that the NTSB has assigned the braking distance of a car to that double trailer truck.
It would be interesting to know how many of the truck wheels were skidding, and if the worn-beyond-limit brake drums p
I want to know what planet they came up with thatye number from. My truck with 3 axles of Disk brakes and a GVW of 80k lbs best distance in real world tests I did could only stop with 85 lbs of pressure to the chambers the max I can feed in over 350 feet. That was loaded with an bulk dry tanker. With an empty I was over 500 feet due to bouncing of my suspension. Yet they think a set of Rocky Mountain doubles could stop in less distance than some cars can.
I notice that the news report on the NTSB finding says this:
“…warning lights were flashing and the gate in place 18 seconds before the collision when the truck was still 900 feet away from the crossing.”
When I look at their animated diagram, it appears that when the truck was 900 feet away, it was 12 seconds before the collision, not 18 seconds.
I called a couple of my Buddies that have the Ultimate Gravy Job aka they haul Triples for UPS from the Indiana Line to Cleveland and I asked them what is their Shortest that they could stop in an Emergency Situation like this one. Now these are guys with Millions of Accident free Miles that run the Same roads all the time. They are told BY UPS that if it is less than a 900 feet do not go into an Emergency Stop as it will cause the Back 2 Trailers to Jack knife and kill more people than you can imagine. This is from their Safety Managers even from 55 Empty I highly Doubt that this man could have stopped in less than 900 feet as my tests where done at 60. Think about this I have Brakes on my Tractor that Exceed the Proposed NEW Requirements and even the standards in Europe and even I doubt in the Distance he had to stop pulling a set of Trailers he was if I COULD HAVE STOPPED.