Cars jump switch and hits standing locomotives
Was curious as to the details and here a linked article:
http://www.burlesonstar.net/texasnews/ci_22857556
“Train derails in White County, 1 person injured”
By The Associated Press
Posted: 03/23/2013 05:55:13 PM CDT
"…McRAE, Ark. (AP) A train derailment near McRae in White County has sent one person to the hospital and left 25 railcars off the tracks.
Union Pacific railroad spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza says the 2 p.m. Saturday accident occurred when a train with 56 cars was passing three stopped locomotives on a parallel track.
The locomotive of the moving train hit one of the stopped locomotives and injured an engineer inside the stationery vehicle. Espinoza says he was taken to a hospital for treatment and his condition wasn’t immediately known.
The train was headed from Laredo, Texas, to Salem, Ill., and was hauling mainly auto parts. No hazardous material was involved.
Crews are on the scene to clean up the wreckage but Espinoza didn’t have word on how long that would take…"
Sounds like the light engines fouled the main … human error or the units rolled out . (Which is still a human error FAIL and PTC won’t avoid this using autonomous GPS tied to GIS)
Methinks Uncle Pete is gonna be out there repainting, mui rules reminders and verifying clearance marks.
The crew on the lite engine move did nothing wrong. They were merely sitting out on the mainline waiting on the intermodal train to clear up in the adjacent siding. One of the wheels on that train picked the switch in front of the lite engines, and promptly started to pile things up behind it. The crew of the lite engines could do nothing but helplessly watch (and hold on tight) as the pileup crept closer and closer before finally hitting them. But, like you said, PTC couldn’t have prevented this. It was simply a very bad case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ve yet to determine whether or not the lite engines’ conductor was on the ground watching the intermodal go by at the time of the derailment, which would be the customary rule for a stopped train watching another go by.