Re: The DC Metro crash ....... a sidebar/backstory .......

[Stinky The Clown]

So ..... we've been listening to coverage live on teevee since about 30 minutes after it happened. Six dead, so far. I feel awful about that and wish their families the ability to properly and healthily grieve and then move forward.

Through the coverage we heard all sorts of mention of "terror". We heard that the FBI was at the scene and had an open command post. We then hear that TSA - TS Fucking A - was also on the scene.

But they had this need to reassure us stupid viewers - NO TERRORISTS IN SIGHT.

NTSB shows up. They do a presser. The spokesmodel mentions TSA and FBI. And assures us there's no hint of TERRORISM.

The mayor never mentioned terrorism in his remarks. The Metro GM never mentioned terrorism in his comments. Neither did the DC top cop or firechief.

But Oh Those Feds. And Oh That Media.

TERRA TERRA TERRA



Oooops .... I got carried away.

This "terror" shit has grown to a point where we really ought to be calling it a national sickness.

[marmar]

1. I know.....I get so sick of that drill.

Terrorism is the absolute last thought that crosses my mind when something happens. THey act like there were no plane crashes or train accidents prior to 9/11.....

:argh:

[Old and In the Way]

2. It's part of the national psyche. I'm afraid.

I noticed a couple of things in the video.
1 The clearance between the 2 trains seems exceedingly tight.
2 The location looks like the tracks are banked...implying that this might be a hi-speed turn.

I wonder if this combination of factors might have contributed to this tragedy?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. I disagree ............

Maybe if this had happened in St. Louis, or Chicago, or Atlanta, but this area was hit on 9/11, and that's not easily forgotten. Every time I drive past the Pentagon, I can still remember how it smelled the day after, how it looked for so long.

So, no, I don't think it's alarmist, not at all. Especially since I've thought since 9/11 that the smartest place to hit, if I were a terrorist, would be the DC Metro at rush hour.

Except, in my imagination, it's letting loose a biohazard in the subway part of the system................................

[XOKCowboy]

5. Two trains colliding brings infrastructure more to mind than terrorism to me..

I understand your concerns but even in DC two trains colliding isn't that unusual anymore. Now if there were more than one crash or as you say if it'd happened in the subway I could see your concern.

I agree with the OP. It was pretty evident that this was an isolated incident and our beloved media goes into Terra Terra All The Time mode.

I'd also like to say that this is a terrible tragedy and my heart goes out to the victims.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

8. It's not always clear

that it was as simple as two trains colliding. And, at first blush, nothing around here is ever obvious. And the Metro is the subway - parts of it are elevated, parts of it are underground, but it's all Metro.

So, taking the cautious route, the Feds dispatched everyone to make sure, and they made a speedy, onsite assessment that it wasn't terrorism.

I live ten minutes from the Pentagon and fifteen minutes from the White House, and I think, having stood on a balcony and watched the smoke from the Pentagon drift up to the sky on 9/11, I just see things differently because I live here. It's just different, and I know it might be hard to comprehend.

But it's very real...........

[Stinky The Clown]

6. "Except, in my imagination .........."

See, that's the point. This crash was just that. A crash. Not an uncommon one. Running a signal by accident or human error. Or a faulty signal. Do you recall the AMTRAK crash at Chase, MD, in 1987. Similar circumstances. But in that case, one of the train's engineers was toasted on weed when he fouled the main line. He served 4 years in prison.

Or that 1992, 1993 or 1994 (whatever) crash in an Alabama bayou were the train rain off the operable part of a swing bridge unknowingly hit earlier by a badly off course barge and knocked out of alignment

Or that numbnutz metro engineer, just recently, in CA who was texting someone in the seconds before the crash.

Or our own (again) crash at the Woodley Park station where the incoming train lost its brakes and hit the train in the station. 4 died.

Yeah, I can see why people might think that terrorists could stage these events (<--- not snark), but honestly, I just never go there when there are simpler reasons such things happen. And it seems that mentioning "terra" every 12 seconds serves not to reassure or inform so much as perpetuate the fear.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

9. I know what you're saying,

but, at first blush, no one knew what had happened. We still don't know what happened to cause the crash.

If you lived here, close to the site, if you'd been here on 9/11, you'd have a slightly different perception, I think. Because I'm hardly in favor of any terra warnings, finding them all mostly bullshit, but when it's this close to the Capitol and the White House and the Pentagon and me, you might see it differently.

It's about proximity, and the memory of that day. Believe me, I'm as surprised as you might be at my reaction, but it's very real ...........

[Stinky The Clown]

10. I 'was there' too ............

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. I'm glad you're all right.......

I had just flown in from Los Angeles that morning, red-eye, United, and I wonder if I walked past the hijackers as I left Dulles and headed home.

How long did it take you to get home that day?

But, living here is different. It's a constant................

[malaise]

13. If people are living in perpetual fear about terrorists, they are

unlikely to be fearful about crumbling bridges, roads, water mains and electric grids. The state of infrastructure should frighten everyone and the real terrorists are those responsible for this mind blowing neglect.

[a la izquierda]

18. +1

[liberal N proud]

4. TSA wasn't getting enough attention

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. It is DC, FBI is almost always at major scenes

almost always, regardless.

TSA, they might have dogs (for bombs, who am I shitting) that the other agencies might be missing.

Oh and I would never discount terror in a mass casualty incident... just that my thinking tends to go internal not external

Them years in EMS I guess.

[zbdent]

12. Cheney is probably somewhere trying to tell a bunch of billionaires

that this wreck was all Obama's fault and that it would have been prevented by someone held in Gitmo for 8 years being tortured ...

[SoCalDem]

14. It will probably end up being a bored "driver" texting his girlfriend

about what he wanted for dinner:(

[Vinca]

15. Terror by texting - my thought, too.

[malaise]

16. The operator was female

and she died. Who knows - she may have been texting. Unless the brakes failed, how else did she hit a stationery train.

[SoCalDem]

17. Woops.. It's a shame either way..

:(

[rainbow4321]

19. I wonder if she passed out

There was a report last night saying that all trains would "be run manually and at slower speeds" today.
So do those trains have an autopilot option like planes do? Could it be her train was not on manual, she passed out for whatever reaon, and the train was a runaway train---til it backended the stopped train?

[Tesha]

20. Trains all contain some firm of a "deadman" device that will (eventually) stop the train...

if the operator becomes incapacitated. Note the
"eventually", though. If the train were near the
collision point and the operator became ill, the
train might still have time to collide before the
deadman device "tripped".

Tesha

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Some years ago we had a similar crash, but in the underground portion of the system.

A train was in the Woodley Park station. Another train hit it and ran over the top of it after losing its brakes and rolling backward into the other train. Go to this link and look at the picture. Eeerily similar to what we saw yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22466-2004Nov3.html