Spain Train Crash Driver Francisco Jose Garzon Amo Ignored 3 Signals To Slow Down

[Stuart G]

Source: Huffington Post, AP

MADRID -- The driver of a Spanish train that derailed, killing 79 people, ignored three warnings to reduce speed in the two minutes before the train hurtled off the tracks on a treacherous curve, crash investigators said Friday.

A court statement said the driver was talking on the phone to a colleague when he received the first automatic warning in his cabin of a sharply reduced speed zone ahead. The statement said the warning was by means of an audible sound but provided no further detail.

Police forensic tests on the train's black box data recorders showed the last warning came just 250 meters (yards) before a dangerous curve where the accident occurred last week in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/02/spain-train-driver-ignored-signals_n_3696053.html

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Probably drunk, high, or whatever.. Not one, but 3 signals....A commuter train driver in LA, missed two red lites...he was texting and killed 25 people. .he was killed too...Hard to do..miss three signals..Like going thru 3 red lites on a street that ends at a cliff. with a red lite at the cliff..and you still go thru it...Oh..you don't believe it..about that crash..here is a link..read it yourself..the fellow driving was texting..

Chatsworth train collision...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chatsworth_train_collision

[PatrynXX]

1. if your talking on the phone

your not gonna hear shit. In the end it's the phone and the idiot who did it.

[DainBramaged]

2. Negligent Homicide, plain and simple

[KurtNYC]

3. Texting at the wheel is twice as dangerous as driving drunk

Our personal electronics are a drug.

[Stuart G]

4. I heard recently that there are three times

as many pedestrian accidents as there were in 2000. Evidently people are texting while they are walking and not paying attention to where they walk. I can't figure out what is so important that you got to look at the thing while you are driving.

[Skittles]

8. I've noticed lots of young folk's heads are starting to naturally droop

from constantly looking down at their handhelds - I also want to know why they bother to go see movies when they cannot go five minutes without checking those damned things

[Gregorian]

5. The same would have happened were he unconscious. It should be automated.

[theHandpuppet]

6. Good point

One human at the helm with no backup system equals eventual disaster. I'm actually shocked they don't have an automated system anyway on high speed trains.

[Stuart G]

9. I once watched a Japanese train driver.....

We were riding the Tokyo equivalent of the rapid transit/subway... My friend and I were up front..old train buffs we are, and we watched the driver. Every few seconds he had to hit some sort of button or switch to prove that he was paying attention to what was going on in front of him. We watched him/her..there was one woman..and they never..never took their eyes off the track in front of them. By the way, they have an incredible system. Train drivers/engineers everywhere who watch the track, and do their jobs, are embarrassed and disgusted by this idiot/asshole.

[warrior1]

7. I almost got hit by a car

walking on a crosswalk. The guy was busy looking up the road at a accident. I had to yell at him to stop, just in time.

If I hadn't it wouldn't have been pretty.

No cell phone, just simple distraction of what was right in front of him.