WASHINGTON — Amtrak crews are looking for the reason one of the railroad’s premiere high-speed trainsets separated while en route to New York this morning. In a statement, Amtrak officials say Washington to Boston Acela Express train 2150, "e…
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/02/06-acela-trainset-separates-en-route-to-new-york
Well as my mother would say, “Jesus, Mary and Joseph!”
Is there no end to this?
It is reported that the air hoses remained connected. So how was it that it was able to be brought to a stop before the air hoses pulled apart? Did the rear power unit keep pushing just enough to keep the train from becoming widely separated?
Again, there is already a well-developed thread on this occurrence in General Discussion.
It never rains but it pours. Significant misfortune occurs ‘in threes’. Insert further platitudes as required.
From New York Post-
May 12, 2015 — A distracted engineer speeds into a turn in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia, killing eight and injuring more than 200.
April 3, 2016 — A train strikes a backhoe parked on the tracks in Chester, Pa., and derails, killing two and injuring 41.
Dec. 18, 2017 — A train making the inaugural run of a high-speed service from Seattle to Portland hurtles into a turn on an overpass, causing it to derail and crash onto the highway below. Three are killed and dozens injured.
Jan. 31, 2018 — A train carrying several members of Congress crashes into a garbage truck in Charlottesville, Va., killing a passenger in the truck.
Feb. 4, 2018 — An engineer following orders from a dispatcher puts his train on the wrong track in Cayce, SC, where it crashes into a freight train, killing two crewmen on the passenger locomotive.
Makes my blood boil when reporters twist things to suit momentary agendas especially when to create a completely false impression.
Would anyone reading this account of the Chester accident who did not know the facts understand that those who died were not on the ‘derailed’ train? (I should perhaps count my blessings that the toastie didn’t say ‘derailed at over 100mph’ or some such phrase.)
This is an insult to the dead, and in particular blames the engineer backhandedly as if he were not one of the dead. The worst part is the reporter would likely claim, if ‘called’ on this, that not one phrase he wrote is factually wrong.
Not sure why you posted this here, though; did the story not mention the bloodless and relatively undramatic Acela separation that is the topic of this thread? If it did not, it shouldn’t be here; in fact it should be its own topic in ‘passenger’ with a thread title like ‘press coverage of Amtrak’.
For the reporter to claim that not one phrase is factually wrong shows the reporter’s great ignorance of railroad operation, it was not the engineer who put the train on the wrong track, but whoever left the switch lined for the siding–as anyone familiar with railroad operation knows. What does the reporter think the engineer did–in accord with the dispatcher’s instruction, stop short of the switch, get off, line the switch, reboard, back up and accelerate to 5
I would hope that a lot of readers who live in the New York Metropolitan Area will write the Post and demand a correction. I am not a legal expert, but can the newspaper be sued by the engineer’s heirs or by the Brotherhood for libel?
I think in the case of the New York Post specifically, the law states that one cannot sue for libel, but one can sue for stupidity.