A trial if any, won’t be held until after the election. What happens at the trial is not germaine to the ‘narrative’ the will be spouted as ‘law and order in a chaotic world’ by the charging authority that is running to retain his office during the period prior to the election. Personally, I would not be surprised to see all charges dropped after the election ‘to save the jurisdiction money’! A win win - law & order before the election; fiscal conservatism after the election.
Human beings make mistakes for many reasons. Many NTSB reports including this one make that very clear. Safety systems can prevent mistakes. The ATC train control was in the signaling and on the passenger locomotives for 50 years, a half century, and just wasn’t used to slow northbound trains when it could have for very little cost. The investment was already made. Bostian is not the only one who should be held accountable.
Loco
Loco:
My emal address is daveklepper@yahoo,com. Please do send the signal plans. I’d love to have them for nostalgia reasons independent of this issue.
And you have resolved the issue. Speed restrictions were enforced by the PRR system but not at all locations, perhaps only at minority. I think the Portal Bridge slowdown, the approaches from both directions to Penn Station, and the approach to the bridge east of Newark Station, going westbound, are those that I observed. In fact I do not clearly remember any at Frankford Jc., and assumed wrongly on the basis of those that I did observe.
After the wartime wreck at Frankfort Jc., clearly something should have been done!
Dave:
I emailed the 1967 signal system schematic as you requested.
In all my years I never saw a signal or cab drop at Portal or Dock to remind that slowing was required if traveling straight rail.
For Portal depending on the train makeup, we would slow to 45 or 60. The signals and cab were Clear if not chasing anyone.
Coming from Sunnyside to Penn, the signals did warn of the slowdown approaching Penn.
Westbound trains at Newark heading straight rail into 3 would get Clears. Suburban trains traveling west usually were routed into 4 and received a medium speed signal because of the switches and not because of the permitted speeds.
Frankford curve had nothing until after the
Both are political motives-- throw the book at Bostian to get re-elected -or- protect Amtrak from the bad press it deserves for having a poor safety culture. In this case, you can’t have both. So I suspect the far greater motive will be to protect Amtrak. This is the magical world of reality.
So aside from your snide remarks do you have a solution as to the causes of these disasters or are you content to just snipe from the sidelines?
How many thousands of trains have gone around that curve over the past eight decades without a problem?
There is a big difference between an accident and negligence.
Absolutely.
Your version of reality, maybe. You really think a Philly judge cares about protecting amtrak? I doubt it. More like has her eyes on a state superior court chair (or even state DA, then onto the governorship).
You need a big public case full of emotion to get your name out there.
There is also a big difference in degree of negligence. In railroad investigations of derailments, collisions, and various other causes of death and injury, most are considered by the company to be negligence unless they are caused by natural forces such as weather or geology, in which case they are called “Acts of God.”
If they are not “Acts of God,” are you saying that all other cases of derailments, collsions, and other injurious or fatal mishaps that are subjected to company investigations are then routinely prosecuted by the State as criminal negligence?
I’m saying nothing of the sort. Losing situational awareness might be considered an “oops”. Losing situational awareness and not taking any action until you are aware of your location might be negligence. He might not have realized where his exact location was, but he had to be aware of his approximate location and know that there was a slow curve in the vicinity that he hadn’t encountered yet. Just throwing a “what if” out there…
Another question. Charlie has dodged. Not surprising.
Pot, kettle… etc.
Perhaps you should reread what I posted long ago. I maintain better screening and monitoring for psychological and neuropsychological problems is essential. All you have contibuted endlessly is vague stuff that a ten year old kid could have invented. We only have your assertion that you were an engineer.
There is nothing “vague” or “general” about poor vetting, poor training and poor supervision being the major contributor to the disasters we are discussing. I challenge you or anyone else here to dispute the"stuff that a ten year old kid could have invented ". You will not because you cannot.
Poor is a easy word to throw out for glittering generalities. It doesn’t pass muster when it comes to specifics.
So in your opinion what wre the causes of these two disasters?
You are not interested in mine or any other individual’s statements of causes. Only your own - that you don’t want to quantify beyond glittering generalties. Specifics - we aren’t going to do your research for you.
You dodge just like charlie, it must be ‘contagious’. I challenged both of you and both of you ran.
Brandon Bostian and Stephen Brown lost situational awareness due to poor training, poor vetting and poor supervision. Dispute those “generalities”.