New York derailment could disrupt commute for days

Mr. Fiume: What do you mean by “weighted properly”? Of course they overturned, they went around a 30 MPH curve at over 70 MPH. Centrifugal force caused them to fall over.

Mr. Carbone: Was your statement based on the fact that they did a drug test? That’s a standard procedure. Anytime there’s any kind of incident, they do a test. Most of the time, the test comes back negative. Just the fact of the test being done is no reason for you to say the man was on something. The fact is, the test results haven’t come back yet (as far as I’ve heard).

Brandon-

ATS on MetroNorth doesn’t enforce civil speeds like curves. The cab signal system follows Conrail standards. It only governs route and block occupancy.

NTSB’s Weener says that there were no anomalies during two brake tests, nothing exceptional during the trip’s eight passenger stops, no booze in any of the crew’s blood samples, nothing anomalous yet found on signals or track.
CNN and F-- quote sources saying that the engineer said that he was “zoned out” prior to the (what the Crescent did a while back) train losing contact with the rails.
Did someone suggest here yesterday the possibility of a micro-brain-stroke?

Forgive me friends, but I cannot resist. John Shannon, how is an ENGINE given a drug test? Does it involve the EPA?

In any event, sympathies to the families and friends of the persons who did not survive this tragedy, and Speedy
Recoveries for those injured.

Something I do not understand is Automatic Train Control. I had thought Metro-North ATC was primarily a signal system that allowed operation above 79mph. The Automatic in this operation being the ability to detect and enforce block occupancy. And that additionally this ATC had speed enforcement to apply brakes when speed exceeded the allowed speed. I’ve asked this in the forums as well. This is the wikipedia paragraph on signals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-north#Signaling_and_Safety_Appliances

According to this, they already suspect that the Engineer dozed off before the crash.
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20131203/spuyten-duyvil/metro-north-train-driver-dozed-off-before-crash-sources-say
Anything else to say, Mr. Carbone?

Mr. Carbone, the reporters stated that the engine of the train was due for a drug test, if the Engine was on drugs the NTSB would have reported it .
For congress and others asking for Positive Train Control, please note: The Positive train control for the Washington Metro allowed a rear-end collision. As an engineer who does reliability studies, there is no system that is 100.00000 % reliable. Vancouver transit has a system run without operators, and totally computer control. As I understand it they had one accident where a kid jumped down on the tracks and was killed.

Again, the news media referred to the train operator (MN term) as the conductor. Never heard a report that referred to said as the “driver”. Secondly, ALL the reports I saw referred to GCT as Grand Central Station. An early CNN report stated the tain was headed for NY Penn.
It would seem that since the throttle was closed 6 sec before the derailment and brakes put into emergency 5 seconds before the derailment, NO brake failure. If the TO had tried to slow, the throttle would have notched down much sooner. And I find it hard to believe the operator was purposely operating 12 mph above the limit. That’s just not done anymore. Did the TO fall asleep. A ATC system, which has been around for decades, would have prevented this accident.

@ALTON B LANIER - PTC only makes sense if they determine driver failure here. PTC isn’t going to stop a train that’s physically out of control for whatever reason.

On a wider issue (not directed at you Mr Lanier), it’s very early in the story and speculation seems premature. By all means if the chair of the MTA does a Burkhardt then criticize people who do that, but some of the comments attacking the engineer are out of line and are likely to be out of line regardless of who blame ultimately rests with.

Where is Guse with his idiotic statements???

Ok then I apologize profusely for what I said. I mean last month Metro-North was installing a new signal output I think in Mount Vernon and now a driver fails his brakes. Next time I’ll think twice for what I said.

Thanks to congressional budget hacks and their foot dragging, they have proven that wealth trumps safety.