There may be more to this derailment than meets the eye...

[PCIntern]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150514_SEPTA_train_hit_by_projectile_before_Amtrak_crash.html

Coinkydink? Maybe...

[edgineered]

1. Along with Gen Ripper in Dr Strangelove,

I'm wondering if they're putting something in the water.

A rwnj friend began the day by announcing that someone may have pulled spikes out the the tracks. Except for watching Bernie on Rachel the other day, its been a year since turning on the tv.

Am I missing something?

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

3. "Mandrake, have you ever seen a Commie drink a glass of water?"

[edgineered]

4. Finally no one talks politics at work anymore, and very rarely news stories.

Once my support of socialism becomes known, I will become a commie by default, alas, never to replenish bodily fluids again. I'm in good company here though!

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

6. ~!~

[jwirr]

7. Pulling spikes out of the tracks used to be a big vandalism problem. But I cannot remember what

actually happened after the spike was gone.

[edgineered]

15. No doubt that some would pull pranks like that.

Having learned to let comments like the spike pulling pass without saying anything took a while. Often the nuts around here are parroting what they've heard elsewhere. It had me wondering if faux or others were spreading the manure, or if this one came from my friends own deep thoughts. Its sad that I can't tell the difference between fool-speak and a popular tv station anymore.

[jwirr]

22. I can tell you where mine came from - I was an archivist at a railroad museum. Lots of pictures

of crashes.

[edgineered]

24. Didn't mean to question your experiences,

or the experiences of others, jwirr, only letting out some frustration! A smudge on the learning line is as close as it gets to a bell curve for a few in my daily life. Had I even slightly acknowledged the possibility of spikes yesterday, this guy would be blaming terrorists maybe even Obama.

A few weeks ago someone's OP asked what people used as their source of news; like some, I come here, away from the confusion and blurred vision that torment me all day.

[jwirr]

33. That is okay - I was just telling you what I know. And I am actually surprised that someone

hasn't come up with a terrorist idea yet.

[bananas]

2. Uh oh. nt

[libdem4life]

5. Only one fact ... 107 MPH in a 50 MPH Zone. That's negligent manslaughter. Wow, 32 and his

life as he knew it is gone.

[Stardust]

8. Chris Hayes said the engineer was discharged from the hospital.

I wonder if they tested him for any impairment-causing substances. I'm watching the usual Chris, Rachel and Lawrence lineup on dvr-delay,so it's possible that this has already been answered. Reminds me of the Germanwings tragedy.

[libdem4life]

10. Double the speed limit...pretty sure they will take a while sorting this one out before we

hear about it. Even the Republicans are getting dragged in for turning down funding, apparently, for that specific stretch of rails.

[Stardust]

11. Incredible, but not really...Republican congress critters are FUBAR.

[libdem4life]

13. Surely this will not go unnoticed by Amtrak, families, et al. Everyone wants someone to

blame, except I don't know how one sues the Republicans.

[RebelOne]

23. According to news reports this morning,

he was tested and was clean of any drugs or alcohol.

[LiberalElite]

32. He immediately consented to a blood test nt

[jmowreader]

41. Such testing is standard after an accident

They test you for drugs and alcohol.

[okaawhatever]

12. Another article said the emergency brake was pulled on that train. Clearly more to this nt

[libdem4life]

14. Yes, they clocked the final speed, after the brake, at 102.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Ok that explains DHS in this party.

That caught my ear...in fact roused me from my falling asleep, last night during the presser. My ear is trained for unusual things like that. I have not heard any more mention of them though.

[Brickbat]

16. DHS participates in all passenger rail accident investigations.

[Eleanors38]

17. Don't they use dead man's throttles anymore? Or equivalents?

[Brickbat]

18. I don't know about passenger trains, but freight trains have an "alerter," which is a siren-like

alarm that goes off every minute or so. If the engineer doesn't turn it off, the train shoots the brakes.

[Eleanors38]

19. I just don't get what is essentially a runaway train these days unless intentional.

I would think a signal would be sent to off-board sources indicating an engineer override, excess speed, malfunction, etc.

[Brickbat]

21. Cost and delayed maintenance.

[cwydro]

20. That does not fit into

the incredibly excessive speed.

[Stardust]

25. I'm suspicious...

http://www.nola.com/traffic/index.ssf/2015/05/amtrak_wreck_philadelphia.html

Amtrak train sped up more than 30 mph just before derailment | NOLA.com

PHILADELPHIA — In the moment the Amtrak train that derailed at a curve this week was supposed to be slowing down, it was accelerating, investigators said Thursday.

How that came to happen has emerged as the central question surrounding the derailment, which killed eight people and sent more than 200 to hospitals Tuesday night in the nation's deadliest train wreck in nearly six years.

In the minute or so before the crash, the train sped up from 70 mph until it reached more than 100 mph at a sharp bend where the maximum speed is supposed to be 50 mph, National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said. It's unclear, Sumwalt said, whether the speed was increased manually by engineer Brandon Bostian, who grew up obsessed with trains.

Investigators have found no problems with the track, signals or locomotive. Sumwalt said the train, on a route from Washington to New York City, was on time as it left the station in Philadelphia a few minutes before the crash.

[cwydro]

26. Yeah, this engineer

"remembers nothing."

That is convenient.

[Stardust]

27. Did you catch this tidbit further down in the article?

"On an online forum for train enthusiasts called trainorders.com, a user who signed at least two posts "Brandon Bostian" or simply "Brandon" commented on a wide range of industry issues, including safety. A couple of posts under the handle "bwb6df" lamented that railroads hadn't been fast enough to adopt positive train control, GPS-guided technology that can prevent trains from going over the speed limit.

"They have had nearly a hundred years of opportunity to implement SOME sort of system to mitigate human error, but with a few notable exceptions have failed to do so," the writer posted in 2011. The same user said in 2012: "It shouldn't take an act of Congress to get industry to adopt common-sense safety systems on their own."

It's unclear whether the author of the posts was Bostian. In a message posted Wednesday, the site's administrator refused to release any information, citing privacy reasons."


High time for a lie detector test, although I don't trust the tests when it comes to pathological individuals.

[cwydro]

30. Whoa.

No, I didn't see that. Thanks for pointing it out.

Something about this whole crash is very wrong.

[RussBLib]

34. Congress passed new rules in 2007 mandating PTC's

but they gave them until Dec 31 of 2015 to get it done.

It hadn't been put on this train yet. Gave them 8 years to install PTC's and they still dragged their feet.

I think Rachel Maddow had that story last night.

[Renew Deal]

37. She did

[Renew Deal]

36. Are you suggesting that the engineer caused the accident intentionally to prove a point?

That seems like a stretch.

[demtenjeep]

28. I was going to comment

I heard today that he couldn't remember anything.

When hearing the story yesterday my husband commented that the engineer would be losing his job.

[cwydro]

31. Unless there is some unknown issue,

I sure hope he does.

[notadmblnd]

29. he says he doesn't remember anything.

could he have fallen asleep with his foot on the pedal? Is there even a pedal? I'm totally ignorant about trains.

[LiberalElite]

35. An NTSB investigator has said it's not

unusual for someone who's been through such a traumatic event to not remember for a while - until the brain injury (in his case a concussion) resolves.

[Renew Deal]

38. One of the passengers said the same thing.

She remembered before and remembered after, but no memory of the accident.

[Samantha]

39. He has a concussion

More from his memory may emerge with time. Maybe.

Sam

[rainbobryte]

40. My Grammy said....

The same type of accident took place at that same part of the tracks in the 1940s more people were killed but it's still uncanny.

[Jamastiene]

42. That is curious.

Maybe it is some sort of dead man's curve or something? I don't know. Nothing about this whole thing makes sense. People are quick to blame the engineer and even go so far as to think he might have done it on purpose, but why would any engineer do that? I mean, it's their job and possibly their own life at risk too. None of this makes any sense, to me.

[malaise]

43. K & R

given the latest news