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Train strikes prison bus in Texas, 10 killed
The Fugitive?
Brian, Almost identical accident. That’s the very same thought that came to me!
Texas, a state where the Highway crews leave their yard with a full load of sand to sand the highways but never do. If they sand the highways then they won’t have any traction for their trucks to get back to the barn. Thus drivers are on their own when the highways get icy. Salt? the overpasses or bridges, on rural roads, in Texas. That costs money.
However, collision is the incorrect word to describe what happened. Whoever writes Newswire copy needs more accurate vocabulary usage.
Who worded this TRAINS News title of the accident? The news media I just heard more correctly said the bus lost control on icy roads and rolled down an embankment into the side of a moving train. That wording did not give any blame to the Union Pacific. What TRAINS News Wire makes one image is the UP train running into another vehicle near the earlier accident by calling it a collision.
I think this is Train’s blooper for the year, at least so far. Trains should not be more drive-by media with a slant.
I see nothing in this report that “blames” the UP.
Evidently the Texas Department of Corrections driver was driving too fast for conditions. Everything I have seen indicates that the bus did in fact collide with the train, but not in the conventional manner that we would consider a collision. Either way, it must have been a heck of an impact given the damage that it did to the bus and the trailer.
My prayers are with the injured and the families of the dead and injured. Overpasses can prevent most, but not all vehicle-train accidents. There have also been cases of derailed trains falling of bridges onto roadways.
Love those “Quiet Zones”, not! That, apparently, wasn’t a factor here, just the mind-set in the Midland-Odessa area.
Come on guys, get your stories right!!! The bus fell off the overpass onto the train. This was not a vehicle train collision.
Leland Hamersley from Ohio
Sounds to me like the bus went off I-10 and hit the train.
It pains me to see a headline like this in the Trains’ News Wire…
It represents the story in totally different fashion than the reality of the event, and in the eyes of the uninitiated, indicates that the train played a role in the crash. It just ain’t so, Joe… The train didn’t strike anyone or anything; it was, in fact, struck by the bus.
I’ve come to expect a lack of railroad understanding from the mainstream media, even though it still makes blood shoot out of my eyes. But, really? ‘Trains’ website?
C’mon, folks… Love you like family, but this forum should be free of this kind of mistake.
Found this story on Drudge, from local TX. media, with several photos. They clearly show that the bus hit 2 UPS trailers, which were split open and, amazingly, a lot of the packages apparently survived the impact.
On TV last night I saw a picture of the UPS container hit by the bus. It appeared to be on the rear of the train and the bus fell close to 30 feet landing on the container. The reporter reported the container as a "tractor trailer,’ as if it was a circus train. “Piggyback” or "Trailer on Flat Car (TOFC) would have more accurate.
What a bunch of picky, negative people on this forum. Who cares what the reporter stated, as long as the message was conveyed? Then we have the “Don’t blame the train” readers who seem more worried about the blame game than the loss of life. Speaking of the “Drudge”, this forum is becoming just that.
Abilene, not Abeline.