#353 hits a Detroit Fire Truck at crossing

[creddick]

A video of the aftermath http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/22705708/index.html
LOL at the stupid helicopter pilot "it has not been a good year for amtrak".

the lead loco suffered some damage. Somethings hanging from the front and one of the ditch lights has been smashed its a mess.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/slideshow/ne...339/detail.html

Maybe I'm reading between the lines when it was said it has not been a good year for Amtrak.

 

[Bob Dylan]

The city's top fire official spared few words Monday when calling out firefighters who left on railroad tracks a ladder truck before it was struck by a passenger train.
"I'm very upset," Executive Fire Commissioner James Mack said. "It was a $600,000 truck. We're trained professionals. We should always be thinking."

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100302/ME...s#ixzz0h3MUTMUm

I was a paid firefighter while going to college back in the day, even promoted to engineer,(equipment driver!)We were strickly trained and drilled in safety measures while operating/driving fire apparatus!(especially in spotting the rigs!) I'm a big supporter of emergency responders ("Americas heroes"as Ben Franklin, Americas First Fire Chief called them!)but this case reminds me of Forrest Gump: "Stupid is as stupid does!"

 

[amtrakwolverine]

A video of the aftermath http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/22705708/index.html
LOL at the stupid helicopter pilot "it has not been a good year for amtrak".

the lead loco suffered some damage. Somethings hanging from the front and one of the ditch lights has been smashed its a mess.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/slideshow/ne...339/detail.html

Maybe I'm reading between the lines when it was said it has not been a good year for Amtrak.

around 11 seconds into the video you hear the helicopter pilot say it has not been a good year for Amtrak.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

Serves them right for thinking they can just park wherever they damn well please regardless of the consequences. Well look what happened the city of Detroit is without a ladder truck which means if a fire that calls for the truck happens they don't have one and will have to call another city that does have one which will cost valuable time. Also why send a big ol ladder truck to a truck vs car collision? send a normal one unless it was in the area at the time. Maybe this should be in there training manuals DO NOT PARK ON ACTIVE RAILROAD TRACKS!!!. I hope amtrak sues the firetruck driver for damages to the locomotive and the host railroad for the singling system.

 

[AlanB]

Serves them right for thinking they can just park wherever they damn well please regardless of the consequences. Well look what happened the city of Detroit is without a ladder truck which means if a fire that calls for the truck happens they don't have one and will have to call another city that does have one which will cost valuable time. Also why send a big ol ladder truck to a truck vs car collision? send a normal one unless it was in the area at the time. Maybe this should be in there training manuals DO NOT PARK ON ACTIVE RAILROAD TRACKS!!!. I hope amtrak sues the firetruck driver for damages to the locomotive and the host railroad for the singling system.

I'm pretty sure that a big city like Detroit has more than one ladder truck, but still it is a huge and expensive loss. And until it is replaced it could always cause an issue in fire situation, perhaps even resulting in a loss of life.

As for why they sent the ladder truck, there are several possible reasons. Two that come to mind are, it was the closest truck to the accident or they may have had the needed equipment for dealing with getting someone out of the car.

 

[Jeremy]

. . . As for why they sent the ladder truck, there are several possible reasons. Two that come to mind are, it was the closest truck to the accident or they may have had the needed equipment for dealing with getting someone out of the car.

You are correct. In most fire departments the extrication equipment ("jaws of life") is carried in the trucks, not the engines (pumpers). I have noticed that emergency personnel everywhere put the lives of the victims first and their own lives and property second. Even so, one would think that they would be trained not to make a bad situation worse by putting themselves or their equipment at risk.

 

[GregL]

As a volunteer firefighter, I do wear seat belt. My safety is number one. Number two is safety around us.

I too was a volunteer firefighter, retired almost three years ago with 37 years service, and I always wore a seatbelt, both in my private vehicle and the piece of equipment I was driving. I agree with gswager completely!

GregL

 

[amtrakwolverine]

Serves them right for thinking they can just park wherever they damn well please regardless of the consequences. Well look what happened the city of Detroit is without a ladder truck which means if a fire that calls for the truck happens they don't have one and will have to call another city that does have one which will cost valuable time. Also why send a big ol ladder truck to a truck vs car collision? send a normal one unless it was in the area at the time. Maybe this should be in there training manuals DO NOT PARK ON ACTIVE RAILROAD TRACKS!!!. I hope amtrak sues the firetruck driver for damages to the locomotive and the host railroad for the singling system.

I'm pretty sure that a big city like Detroit has more than one ladder truck, but still it is a huge and expensive loss. And until it is replaced it could always cause an issue in fire situation, perhaps even resulting in a loss of life.

As for why they sent the ladder truck, there are several possible reasons. Two that come to mind are, it was the closest truck to the accident or they may have had the needed equipment for dealing with getting someone out of the car.

according to the fire chef Detroit is without a ladder truck and out 600,000$. he's not happy about this. parking were every you damn please to put out a fire is one thing but parking on active RR tracks is just stupid no brains whatsoever and now they paid the price. i though all firetrucks carried jaws of life sense all trucks now also carry paramedics. my neighbors sister who lives with her has seizures and they always send the firetruck which gets there first then the ambulance 2nd all 3 times they came its the same one time they came twice in one night(they took her the 2nd time around).

 

[rtabern]

On the day it happened, I did a ride down to Lincoln, IL on #21 and back up to Chicagp on #304.

#304 got in a little over an hour after #353 arrived, however our train pulled up just a few tracks away from #353... which was still in the station.

Amazingly, the engine didn't look that bad. One of the lights on the front was busted and there was a pretty good gash in one half of it, but it wasn't as bad as you would have thought it looked.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me and wasn't able to get a picture!!

 

[AAARGH!]

Here is a cab-cam video of the crash at CNN.com. Very interesting.

Geeesh.

 

[Bootman4U]

In so many words he said that because of somebodys stupidity the citizens of Detroit are without a ladder truck and $600,000.

Was this an uninsured loss?

Aloha

Most state, City, and Large company's do what is called self insured. Basically underwrite losses internally.

Also I would like to be clear from the earlier post. I am very sportive of our emergency, first responders, which is a reason I get upset about stupid decisions.

Does anyone here know how many incidents of Amtrak equipment either being hit or hitting something/someone we have heard about here in just the past couple of weeks?

 

[amtrakwolverine]

here is a dash cam video of it



you see the police car zoom in reverse out of the way and the truck slowly starting to move. also notice how many tracks there are.

 

[daveyb99]

I see something missing from that video. Apparently, AMTRAK decided to go cheap.

No Date, no Time, no Train Number/Engine Number, no Brakes indicator, no Acceleration indicator, no Horn indicator, no Lat/Longs, no Speed, NO NOTHING. Just video.

I think including these things would be more beneficial, even if a little more expensive.

-------------------------------------

As for the firefighter? Does anyone think 'was he wearing a seat belt' was his thought or is even important? Nope, he was "OH S**T, what did I just do". And who cares which truck responded and why. Did you see the guys trackside waving their arms like "OH S**T". That cop was like "AAAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHH Must Go Faster" till he got out of the way.

Hey, we used to have at least one wreck (of varying degree) per day when I was with the FWPD. The fact those were a few thousand versus a $600,000 price tag (and I bet that is low - those trucks are likely over a $Million by now) makes this harder.

People make mistakes. Some cost more than others. Next issue.

 

[transit54]

I see something missing from that video. Apparently, AMTRAK decided to go cheap.
No Date, no Time, no Train Number/Engine Number, no Brakes indicator, no Acceleration indicator, no Horn indicator, no Lat/Longs, no Speed, NO NOTHING. Just video.

I think including these things would be more beneficial, even if a little more expensive.

I wouldn't rush to judgement on that. One of my responsibilities involves managing cameras on fleet of buses for a public transit agency. We have systems from two vendors - both allow one to turn that information on and off on the video display. They could have very easily just turned those indicators off when they exported the video for the media.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

People make mistakes. Some cost more than others. Next issue.

parking on active railroad tracks is not a mistake its suicide. they are lucky no one was killed. Amtrak should sue the city of Detroit for the cost of repair for the locomotive along with the host railroad for damage to there crossing systems.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

UPDATE

Watching the news today they said amtrak is suing the city. amtrak claims the city was negligent in leaving the truck on the tracks. They claimed they suffered $75,000 in damages from the crash.

 

[Bob Dylan]

:help: Lots of luck with that! Bet Detroit doesnt have $75,000, maybe theyll just give the city to Amtrak! In that case perhaps they could then get some Fed money to restore the magnificent Michigan Central Station before its torn down to make more vacant land! :wacko: