VIA derailment today (2/26/12)

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ReidTYK said:
CBC News has confirmed at least one person has died, while the mayor of Burlington told The Canadian Press that three people have been killed.
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I wonder what caused this.

Makes you wonder how safe travel by train really is.
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Here's what Wiki says:

safety.png


This might be because of all the grade crossing accidents, but still, it's rather sobering.
 
compaired to what? trains derail its nothing new planes crash better not fly cars crash better not drive better not walk or you might get hit by a car.
 
Three dead, all in the locomotive. A fourth crew member in the locomotive survived but is severely injured, yet expected to live. VIA F40PH locomotive #6444 is on its side, with the crew compartment completely destroyed from the top of the front hood and up; the windshield took a concrete wall head-on. Two elderly passengers from the lead car were air-lifted and are listed in critical condition, one with a heart attack. Another 40-something year old passenger is reported to have received a broken back after being thrown from the train through a window.

A nasty accident. I imagine this will take a time to clean up based on the fatalities. Hopefully things are running come Wednesday; tonight's Maple Leaf into Toronto has been held at Niagara Falls, Ontario and passengers are being bussed to their final destinations. Passengers heading South will also be bussed tomorrow (Monday) and meet the train at the boarder crossing. Amtrak.com has yet to put up a Service Advisory, but VIA's site has a Service Disruption listed.
 
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While the investigation is obviously still in its early stages, according to this article: http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/930487/tsb-investigation-update-into-derailment-of-via-rail-canada-train-92-and-renewed-call-for-voice-recorders-on-canadian-trains

The TSB (Transportation Safety Board of Canada) investigation team has now begun to examine the data from the locomotive event recorder (the "black box"). It can now be confirmed that the train entered the crossover from track 2 to track 3 at approximately 67 mph. The maximum authorized speed at that crossover is 15 mph.
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Since all three people in the cab were killed it will be tougher to figure out exactly what happened. As the same article reports:

"In Canada, we have voice recorders aboard aircraft and ships, but not yet on trains," said Wendy Tadros, Chair of the TSB. "As early as 2003, the Board made a recommendation calling for voice recorders on locomotives. In light of this latest accident, I urge Transport Canada and the railway industry to take immediate action on this important safety issue."
In the 2003 TSB Investigation Report (R99T0017), the Board recommended that:

The Department of Transport, in conjunction with the railway industry, establish comprehensive national standards for locomotive data recorders that include a requirement for an on-board cab voice recording interfaced with on-board communications systems.

"Voice recordings allow investigators to understand the environment in which crews operated and the decisions they made leading up to an accident," added Tadros. "The lack of this information in rail investigations deprives the TSB of a key tool it needs to help make Canadians safer."
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NY Penn said:
Do US locomotives have voice recorders?
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Looks like it is not a requirement.

From the February 2010 issue of UTU News (United Transportation Union newsletter):

The National Transportation Safety Board has

recommended that railroads install inward-facing

cameras and voice recorders in every locomotive

cab in the nation, warning that cell

phone texting by engineers and conductors is a

growing and lethal danger.

The NTSB made its recommendation in the

wake of its investigation into the deadly collision

of a commuter train and a freight train in

Chatsworth, Calif., in 2008 – a crash that killed

25 and injured 135, which the NTSB blamed on

a Metrolink engineer who passed a stop signal

while text messaging.
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I don't know if any railroad has installed CVRs at their own initiative.
 
Well, if even after a crash they can't force RRs to install them, that's rather frightening.

Let's hope Amtrak has/will install them.
 

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