Amtrak Regional derailment at Mansfield MA on the NEC

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jis

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MANSFIELD, Mass. (WHDH) - An Amtrak train headed from Washington, D.C. to Boston struck a truck on the tracks in Mansfield and partially derailed just before midnight Monday.

There were about 180 passengers on board the train. None were hurt. They were stranded for about four hours, until being loaded onto an MBTA train and transported to South Station.

The train's engineer was evaluated on scene for a possible head injury but he was not taken to the hospital.

Officials are not saying where the truck was on the tracks, how it gained access of if anyone was inside. They are calling this a large crime scene.
See more on this and a video at: http://www.whdh.com/story/25842346/amtrak-train-hits-car-and-derails-in-mansfield

Service has been restored with delays and speed restriction this morning (6/23/14).

It is being treated as a crime scene since there is no grade crossing anywhere near where the ATV was left on the track.
 
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The news report on Boston.com says that the Regional hit an SUV with 2 fatalities in the SUV: MBTA Transit Police Confirm 2 Fatalities in Overnight Train-SUV Collision. Trainorders says that is was Regional #132 with AEM-7 #925. A trainorders post says it was an ATV, not an SUV, but I'll go with the MBTA report. The AEM-7 was damaged with 1 wheel derailed along with track damage. I suspect #925 has seen its last day of revenue service.

.Amtrak issued a service alert on canceled Acela and Regional BOS-NYP trains for the early AM runs.

Will be interested to see follow-up reports on how the heck an SUV (or an ATV) ended up on the tracks.
 
I caught this item on the news here locally. it is interesting they are calling it a crime scene. I thought normally they were called accidents, but maybe that is just semantics in the reporting? Not sure. So far there has been no residual delays on the other commuter rails lines, but I suspect as the day gets busier that might not be the case.

My boss got stuck from New Haven to Boston and so far it is nearly 2 hours late.
 
I wonder where the rest of the SUV is. Surely all of it could not have gotten under an AEM-7 without causing a much more spectacular derailment? Apparently the AEM-7 is sitting atop whatever it hit, or at least some part of it. So I am sceptical about the SUV thing until I see a picture of the rest of it somewhere along the track. OTOH an ATV could very well get under an AEM-7 causing only a minor derailment.
 
Looks like it's up to 3 now... http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/06/23/two-people-killed-when-amtrak-train-hits-vehicle-mansfield/HWKLS7WiHesU7XJfRUHKEP/story.html

peter

Edit: looking at GMaps, it looks like Elm Terrace used to cross the tracks, but was turned into a dead end. I wonder if the driver just thought they'd cut across the tracks there. There is a building there, so it seems unlikly that they didn't know the road was closed.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Elm+Terrace/@41.9974233,-71.2446061,123m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x89e4617912b3639f:0x72d317705f27413f
 
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So my H had to take MBTA in this morning because I guess the amtrak delays were too long and he had to get to work. He took the 7:12 MBTA from PVD and didn't arrive in BOS until after 9:30 am....so still delays even on the commuter rail through that area.
 
Edit: looking at GMaps, it looks like Elm Terrace used to cross the tracks, but was turned into a dead end. I wonder if the driver just thought they'd cut across the tracks there. There is a building there, so it seems unlikly that they didn't know the road was closed.
You can see from the satellite and street view images that the tracks are completely blocked off by a fence, trees, and buildings at Elm Terrace. The collision occurred on a high speed straight section of the NEC rated for 150 mph for Acelas and 125 mph for Regionals. They could be finding pieces of the SUV for a long time. Good thing that an Acela did not hit the SUV at 150 mph or we would have found out the hard way just how robust the Acela design is for collision protection.

i expect there will be an extensive investigation to determine where and how the hell the SUV got onto the tracks. This could be the type of accident that results in design and regulatory changes for blocking off tracks and perhaps adding sensors or cameras to detect when cars or people illegally get onto the tracks.
 
Yes, seems an odd place to be trying to cross the tracks. The article I found said the accident/crime scene was a mile in length, and there was a picture of one of the SUV wheels under the train. http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/06/23/amtrak-train-hits-car-on-tracks-in-mansfield/

As always, sad that these things so needlessly happen. Condolences and prayers for all involved.

In checking to see if my link worked OK, I see the article has been edited to add some additional info. Now it seems they aren't sure whether it was an SUV or truck.
 
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I caught this item on the news here locally. it is interesting they are calling it a crime scene. I thought normally they were called accidents, but maybe that is just semantics in the reporting? Not sure.
"Crime Scene" here is a euphamizm for deciding if it was "ZOMG TERRORISTS!!!!" or "Everyday stupidity".
 
As I recall, every trespasser or vehicle strike on LOSSAN is treated as a crime scene.
 
Apparently 132 was doing 125mph when the engineer saw the vehicle on the track and hit emergency. When the train impacted the vehicle it was doing 119mph. From a usually reliable source.
Yikes, is there anything left of the SUV or the people in it?
 
In checking to see if my link worked OK, I see the article has been edited to add some additional info. Now it seems they aren't sure whether it was an SUV or truck.
Well they have been able to identify three bodies. Haven't heard anything about the identity of the three people that they correspond to though.
From what I am hearing, apparently they have not really been able to figure out what kind of vehicle it was. They are trying to collect all the widely dispersed pieces to try to reconstruct enough at least notionally to come to a definite conclusion.

Anyway, the accident report is going to be interesting and I await it eagerly.
 
It was a Ford, I think a late model Explorer- not entirely sure about the model, but definitely a Ford.
 
Apparently 132 was doing 125mph when the engineer saw the vehicle on the track and hit emergency. When the train impacted the vehicle it was doing 119mph. From a usually reliable source.
Yikes, is there anything left of the SUV or the people in it?
The only photograph I saw in the news report of recognizable wreckage was a tire & rim, presumably still connected to some part of an axle, sticking out from under the AEM-7. The police may have kept the press away from photograping the scattered pieces of the SUV, if it was an SUV, because human remains may have been scattered among the pieces as well. This was clearly a very violent high speed collision.

News update on the accident: Victims in vehicle hit by Amtrak train were in their 20s.

The three people killed late Sunday night when the vehicle they were traveling in was hit by an Amtrak train in Mansfield were in their 20s and lived in three towns within several miles of the collision, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said Tuesday.

The official, who could not speak publicly because of the sensitivity of the probe, said the victims were from Foxborough, Raynham, and North Attleborough.

The Bristol district attorney’s office said it was still trying to get more information.

Officials there are withholding the names of the two men and woman who were killed, while the state medical examiner confirms their identities, said Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter.
So they were local and young. Possibly one or more of them thought it would be fun to drive on the tracks for kicks.
 
Apparently 132 was doing 125mph when the engineer saw the vehicle on the track and hit emergency. When the train impacted the vehicle it was doing 119mph. From a usually reliable source.
Yikes, is there anything left of the SUV or the people in it?
In one of the media reports there is a pretty large lump covered by a tarp on the back of a tow truck (ok a roll back to be specific). Likely that is the carcass of the SUV with the bodies of the deceased inside. My guess is a decision was made to transport the SUV to a safe location so the bodies could be extricated under the medical examiners direction.
 
Pretty gruesome.! Any news on if they have managed to complete positive Id yet?
Interestingly enough it really hasn't been covered by the local PVD news. All eyes are on the mayoral race (must declare by today).
 
A sad ending to three people who made some very bad choices in their short lives. :(
Possibly.

I swear I'm not being argumentative, more reflective when I say this.

When I read the story, I wondered if all three were for it or if two were at the mercy of the driver. That led me to wonder how fast they were driving and if one or both passengers were trying to decide if it was safe enough to jump out of the vehicle. (Personally, I'd take my chances of some broken bones over getting hit by a train, but panic doesn't always make for quick thinking.)

Instead of assuming they were egging on the driver, I assumed it was equally possible one or both passengers were terrified and yelling for the driver to stop and/or get off the tracks.

Then I stopped thinking about it because it made me very sad to imagine that level of terror. :(

I know enough not to get into a vehicle with a drunk driver, but there's really no way to know if a friend is stupid enough to drive on railroad tracks, try to beat a train, or sit on the RR tracks at a crossing. I would HOPE my friends are smart enough not to do that. Nobody I know would drive on the tracks, but there's always a chance someone won't be careful enough at a crossing. I would hope my friends would realize how stupid that is, especially since I talk about trains and train safety IRL. Plus, my friends are all over 30 and quite mature and intelligent.

Anyway, the passengers may have made a stupid choice by getting into that vehicle, or perhaps they were completely innocent. Unfortunately, there's no way to know, since they're all dead. :(
 
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The incident was nowhere near a railroad crossing. The vehicle was on the track facing the same way that the train was traveling. It is not clear whether they were just driving along the railroad track or were stationary when they were hit. It is not even clear if they knew in time to do anything about it. Remember 132 was doing 125mph before the engineer put it into emergency and managed to reduce the speed by some 5 to 10mph, if that before impact. There is not much time available to react when you are covering over 2 miles a minute, or almost a couple of thousand feet in 10 secs or so.

Bottom line they should not have been where they were. As to how they came to be there, we'll probably never know. Heck, they don't even seem to know where they got onto the ROW.

Also, things could have turned out spectacularly worse for the train too. It was very fortunate that that did not come to pass.
 
Also, things could have turned out spectacularly worse for the train too. It was very fortunate that that did not come to pass.
Agreed. I got off on a tangent when I mentioned crossings. Sorry. :)
 
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