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http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/06/24/3-killed-as-Amtrak-train-truck-collide/UPI-76781308951810/
This article is saying at least 5 died in the collision -
This article is saying at least 5 died in the collision -
Way, way, way too early for speculation like that. And anyway; if you wanted to attack a train, there are far easier ways to do it.And those crossing gates look just fine. The truck had to drive around them, which isn't really that likely while sleep driving while a train is blaring its horn at you. (assuming they can verify that, which I suspect in time they will confirm one way or another). I know it's still early. But anyone else leaning towards suicide or something more sinister here?
Maybe we should add "fire extinguisher" to the list of things folks should bring with them. I never saw a single reference, image, or video of anyone trying to put out the fires. I did see photos of cars simply left to burn themselves out, possibly trapping and killing passengers in the process. Even if Amtrak has insurance nobody is selling Superliners anymore. They just lost two or three more cars they'll never get back. I guess they either don't have extinguishers or have no clue how to use them.Geeze, if Amtrak cars are that flammable do I really want to ride in one?
Nothing short of a slurry bomber or a pumper would have been able to stop a fire like that once it started. Even fighting a fire fueled by a couple of gallons of spilled fuel is very hard to fight with an extinguisher. Amtrak has extinguishers in the cars, but by far the best thing to do is to just get everybody off the train. Encouraging employees or passengers to try and fight the fire leads to costly lawsuits. In all honesty, most people don’t know how to properly fight a fire with an extinguisher anyway.Maybe we should add "fire extinguisher" to the list of things folks should bring with them. I never saw a single reference, image, or video of anyone trying to put out the fires. I did see photos of cars simply left to burn themselves out, possibly trapping and killing passengers in the process. Even if Amtrak has insurance nobody is selling Superliners anymore. They just lost two or three more cars they'll never get back. I guess they either don't have extinguishers or have no clue how to use them.Geeze, if Amtrak cars are that flammable do I really want to ride in one?
GeorgeB's post #62 was hidden at the time you made your post, but George is correct in what he says. Bringing a fire extinguisher to a fire like that pretty much is hopeless. You might just as well bring a bucket of water to put out the wild fires in the Southwest. That extinguisher is one's first line of defense to keep a small fire from becoming a big fire. My guess is that things on that train went from dead calm to conflagration in a matter of seconds. And that would be well beyond any extinguisher's capacity to put out. Frankly you'd be lucky to even be able to get close enough due to the immense heat to use the extinguisher.Yeah, why bother, everything's useless. I just hope there are some more positive minded folks on the train if I'm ever in a situation like this. I do find the flammability of the Superliners to be rather surprising though. You hear about US passenger trains having so many regulations, but in this area they seem to be lacking something.
You know, that's really taking the "woe is Amtrak, everything sucks" attitude just a little bit too far. With a collision and fire of that magnitude, fire extinguishers were absolutely worthless You can see in some of those pictures that the firefighters involved were wearing their silver reflective "hot potato" suits because of the size and heat of the fire.Yeah, why bother, everything's useless. I just hope there are some more positive minded folks on the train if I'm ever in a situation like this. I do find the flammability of the Superliners to be rather surprising though. You hear about US passenger trains having so many regulations, but in this area they seem to be lacking something.
Yes, the old saying "Pick your battles" applies here.......Yeah, with a fire that big, if you can move, you get out; you don't fight it with a hand-held extinguisher.
I'm not sure a train-wide surpression system would have been able to do much.
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