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BlackCat
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In real life cars don't explode as they do in movies.
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Adam Smith
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Maryland, USA
Jan 1970
time: 00:28
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quote:
Originally posted by St Leo
In movies, trains that hit cars don't derail. |
A few years back I did a study of major train accidents in the US. If you look closely at the bottom photograph that you posted, you can get a good idea of what happened.
On the center track is the inbound train which was initially involved in the collision. On the right is a relatively undamaged car on its side, unattached to the inbound train. This is the last remaining car of the outbound passenger train, the rest being relatively undamaged and hauled away by the time this photograph was taken. At the bottom left are two other locomotives, different color and type than the locomotive at the top of the picture. These were on the freight train that the inbound passenger train ran into.
The inbound passenger train was traveling cars first when it hit. (Operating cars first is a common commuter train practice which avoids having to turn the train at either end of the run. The engineer would have been in the front of the first car and was likely killed or badly injured.) The cars are much lighter than the locomotive, which was pushing the cars from behind. As a result, the cars sustained heavy damage and were pushed off the track. If the heavier locomotive had been leading the train, it would have air-mailed the SUV, everything else would have pretty much stayed in place, and likely only a few people would have been injured. (Locomotives have reinforced crash protection which limits damage in crashes.)
One thing I don't understand is why the engineer of the inbound train was not able to slow down more. The tranck appears to be straight, and being on the center of three tracks he should have had decent visibility even going around a moderate curve.
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Kontiki
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Canada
Aug 2001
time: 00:28
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I'd say it's a bit of a miracle more people didn't die. Sad enough, though.
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Rex Little
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Latest news has 11 dead, over 180 injured. This happened just a few miles from where my in-laws live, and right around the corner from where they lived before that. My wife played in that very railroad yard when she was little.
Not sure if I mean this seriously, but here's something to think about. Suppose there were places where someone could go and say "I want to kill myself", and be given a painless lethal injection, no questions asked. Perhaps this guy would have done that instead of parking his SUV in front of a train. There have been plenty of other cases where people committed suicide in ways which killed or hurt others (and I'm not talking about the ones who intended to do that, like the 9-11 hijackers or the Columbine killers). Maybe we should make it easier for the suicidal to get their wish without causing collateral damage.
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26-01-2005 21:00
Two commuter trains and a freight train collided; at least 3 dead; cars tossed around like toys. Second heli-vac copter just lifted off with severely injured people. 
The word is now that some #@&!*! who wanted to commit suicide wedged his SUV across the tracks so that the trains would hit it. --But he chickened out, jumped out of his SUV as the trains approached and watched the accident as it occurred. 
Stupid, stupid, stupid!
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