CZ Train Truck Collision In Nevada (2011)

[George B]

Also, I'm guessing in a really bad crash, the safest thing to do is to get out of the car and into an undamaged car AS FAST AS POSSIBLE. IIRC, on Superliners, the links between the cars are topside- in the upstairs. It would be a lot harder to get upstairs and into a "safer" car if you were on the lower level. And I suspect in a fire situation, opening a door or window (allowing a blast of oxygen into the car right where you were) would likely make things even worse.

If there is fire and/or heavy smoke in your car, you need to just get out as quickly as possible. Unless the train is still moving, or in a location where exiting the car would be more dangerous, don’t try and get up the stairs and to another car. The passageway between cars is a horrible place for bottlenecks of people trying to exit all at once. You stand a much better chance of survival by pulling out the window on the second floor of a Superliner car and jumping than being caught in a crush of people trying to go up or down the stairs or through the passageways to another car.

Don’t worry about the possibility of opening a window or door making a fire worse. If you are close enough to the fire where you think this is a problem, you need to get out of the car immediately anyway.

 

[George Harris]

George there's been nothing political in my posts on this thread.Among other facts, I clarified and explained news sources, agencies, etc.

. . .

Please re-read my posts on this thread; they're neither "political," nor promoting FOX or any other medium. Hope this helps.

It wasn't you I was thinking about when I wrote what I did. Quite the opposite, in fact. I thought yours were anything but political, something that cannot be said about someone who attacked you for no apparent reason.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

George there's been nothing political in my posts on this thread.Among other facts, I clarified and explained news sources, agencies, etc. Please re-read my posts on this thread; they're neither "political," nor promoting FOX or any other medium. Hope this helps.

It wasn't you I was thinking about when I wrote what I did. Quite the opposite, in fact. I thought yours were anything but political, something that cannot be said about someone who attacked you for no apparent reason.

See what happens when you attack people with vague and unexplained innuendo? All it does is cause more trouble than when you started. Better to be honest about whoever it is you're actually intending to insult. Otherwise you're just randomly trolling the thread.

 

[The Journalist]

Driver had previous tickets for speeding in a school bus: RGJ Link

 

[Amtrak George]

Distracted Driving? The National Transportation Safety Board has recovered the deceased trucker's cell phone and is investigating whether he was talking or texting. We'll have to wait and see what the investigation reveals, but distracted driving seems to be a definite possibility. :mellow:

One the passenger count, a recent news report says that now only two passengers are not accounted for. Apparently no more bodies have been recovered.

 

[RailFanLNK]

On our channel 8 news KLKN tonight two victims were from Seward NE, just 20 miles away from my hometown of LNK. It was a grandmother and granddaughter who was only 18. The teen had survived cancer as a child. It was a sad story.

 

[Trainmans daughter]

On our channel 8 news KLKN tonight two victims were from Seward NE, just 20 miles away from my hometown of LNK. It was a grandmother and granddaughter who was only 18. The teen had survived cancer as a child. It was a sad story.

Of all the stories I have read about this tragic event, this is the one that grabbed my heart. My precious granddaughter is my Amtrak travel buddy and the reason I love to ride the train. My heart breaks for these two special people.

 

[barbark]

My link

 

[George B]

As far as I can tell, this video is correct in that it depicts #5 of June 22 passing through Iowa before being struck by the truck two days later:

 

[amtrakwolverine]

According to the news This trucking company hah a run in with an Amtrak train at the same crossing a year before. they had multiple violations etc

 

[Devil's Advocate]

As far as I can tell, this video is correct in that it depicts #5 of June 22 passing through Iowa before being struck by the truck two days later.

Looks like the train made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up back where it started.

According to the news this trucking company hah a run in with an Amtrak train at the same crossing a year before. They had multiple violations etc

I'm sure the problem is too much regulation. If we just deregulated the trucking industry a little more then none of this would happen.

 

[jis]

According to the news this trucking company hah a run in with an Amtrak train at the same crossing a year before. They had multiple violations etc

I'm sure the problem is too much regulation. If we just deregulated the trucking industry a little more then none of this would happen.

Correct, if there were no regulations and rules and laws, then there would be nothing to be in violation of, ergo.... no violations

 

[DET63]

As far as I can tell, this video is correct in that it depicts #5 of June 22 passing through Iowa before being struck by the truck two days later.

Looks like the train made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up back where it started.

According to the news this trucking company hah a run in with an Amtrak train at the same crossing a year before. They had multiple violations etc

I'm sure the problem is too much regulation. If we just deregulated the trucking industry a little more then none of this would happen.

I'm not a radical libertarian by any means, but I don't think lack of regulation is the problem here. Either there are regulations that can't be enforced and are thus routinely violated—therefore making them all but worthless—or the regulations in place simply don't address the actual issues that make trucks unsafe. Neither imposing more draconian regulations, nor abolishing all regulations, is likely to be the answer. Before anything is done, however, a thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding the accident will have to be done. My guess is that, short of building an overpass for the highway, there's not much that can be done.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I'm not a radical libertarian by any means, but I don't think lack of regulation is the problem here. Either there are regulations that can't be enforced and are thus routinely violated—therefore making them all but worthless—or the regulations in place simply don't address the actual issues that make trucks unsafe. Neither imposing more draconian regulations, nor abolishing all regulations, is likely to be the answer. Before anything is done, however, a thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding the accident will have to be done. My guess is that, short of building an overpass for the highway, there's not much that can be done.

You don't have to be a libertarian to setup straw men targets like "draconian" measures vs. abolishing all regulations. Demanding that companies insure for the level of damage and harm they can and do actually cause through their own negligence might be a great start though. While this particular case is still in the early stages there are many other examples of truckers causing far more damage than their minimum liability covers. My own personal auto liability is in the area of a hundred thousand dollars because it's not that hard for me to imagine a bad accident causing that much harm. Truckers should be expected to insure for millions in damages and liabilities since that's the kind of harm they can cause. If applied across the board we might actually get people to pay more attention to what they're doing. Just watching it on the news doesn't seem to be working for some reason.

 

[DET63]

On our channel 8 news KLKN tonight two victims were from Seward NE, just 20 miles away from my hometown of LNK. It was a grandmother and granddaughter who was only 18. The teen had survived cancer as a child. It was a sad story.

Two of the six victims in that tragic Amtrak crash are from Seward, Nebraska. 58 year old Fran Knox and her 18 year old daughter Annie died after a semi-trailer struck the Amtrak train.

KHAS News 5

Other sources seem to agree that Fran was the grandmother of Annie, however.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

My guess is that, short of building an overpass for the highway, there's not much that can be done.

I don't have it in front of me, but I read somewhere that a truck driver (one from the convoy?) said the problem was Amtrak, because the trains go too fast through that crossing! :help:

 

[jis]

Amtrak conductor had a passion for the rails

Some called Laurette Lee the "Iron Maiden." Even at the age of 68, she would often climb out of the trains she conducted, sledgehammer in hand, to smash the ice off frozen switches.
"She'd just bang on that switch until it came unstuck," said Dorrie Crooks, a volunteer at the California State Railroad Museum who often rode with Lee. "She was just incredibly strong."

Lee, who lived in Concord until a move to South Lake Tahoe two years ago, was the first person to be identified as a victim of Friday's fiery collision in the Nevada desert, where a tractor-trailer barreled through safety gates and rammed her Amtrak train.

.......

 

[here she goes again]

I am just so saddened to hear of this tragic loss

a million blessings and healing to all involved

I love the CZ, and have had the pleasure of riding three times, coast to coast.

I've also had the misfortune of being on a train that was hit (by a car), also outside of reno, in our case, there were no fatalities

on the train, the driver of the car did perish (rest her); that was bad enough..

just so sad

 

[chandj]

We were just on the CZ a month or so ago. This is just so very sad.

 

[yarrow]

first lawsuit filed over amtrak crash in nv

 

[RRrich]

I think it is amazing that they recovered the truck driver's cell phone from the rubble and expect that they can recover data from it. I assume that the cell and the driver were in the blaze. Am I wrong? After the cell phone was cooked well done, they can still recover data? WOW!!

 

[AlanB]

They don't need the phone to do anything, they'll just have the phone company pull the records to see if he was using it.

 

[Donald M]

Was the consist on the CZ accident unusual, transition, coach? Usually the transition is followed by two sleepers, diner, lounge and then coaches, correct?

 

[yarrow]

Was the consist on the CZ accident unusual, transition, coach? Usually the transition is followed by two sleepers, diner, lounge and then coaches, correct?

we took a round trip on the cz in early june and the 3 sleepers were on the rear both ways. the same consist as in the accident

 

[DET63]

first lawsuit filed over amtrak crash in nv

From the linked article:

RENO, Nev. —An Amtrak train attendant filed the first lawsuit over a crash that injured her and killed at least six people in Nevada last week, as more details emerged Tuesday about the driving record of the trucker whose big rig plowed into the double-decker rail cars.

The suit was filed in Washoe County District Court in Nevada by Alexandra Curtis of Evanston, Ill., who is among about 20 people injured in the crash east of Reno on Friday. Her lawsuit alleges negligence on the part of truck driver Lawrence Valli, 43, and his employer, John Davis Trucking Co., saying that he ignored railroad crossing gates and warning signals.

"Quite simply, this driver should not have been behind the wheel of this truck," said attorney Dan Kotin, of Chicago firm Corboy & Demetrio, which filed the suit.

Looks like the plaintiff has a pretty good case.