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Sad story about the Chatsworth Metrolink Crash

The whole entire crash is tragic considering it was completely avoidable. Sometimes they're not and it is something that you have to deal with every day whether you travel by plane, bus, train, car, even walking or riding a bike. It is still quite sad and almost unbelievable.

Had the train operator lived I would have hoped that he would be charged with manslaughter. Not because of "an eye for an eye" rather, the disregard for the red light signal was clearly reckless and while he clearly didn't intend to kill, his behavior did and therefore it is within the boundries of manslaughter. Unfortunately, I wonder who will help the families of the victims as it almost sounds like the Union will not. Maybe I am misreading.
 
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Ah yes this is indeed sad.
It's too bad because a lot of people rely on trains for transportation, and then you come to hear these sad stories. 🙁
 
That reminds me of the woman (Violet Jessop) who survived the sinking of the Titanic and Britannic and the Olympic's collision with another ocean liner.
 
We lost someone we knew in this terrible accident. It's kind of stunning -- you read about these sorts of things all the time, but you never expect someone you know to be killed in one.
 
I'm sorry to hear that, IJ Reilly. Let's hope they make changes to prevent this kind of tragedy in the future. It seems to be a case where human error can occur, but technology can help solve the problem.
 
I'm surprised these things can happen.

In Madrid as far as I know, there aren't any commuter tracks that run consistently bidirectionally. If they need to change a train's direction, it hops to another rail that runs parallel to it. I understand freights being on commercial rail trying to save money by only building one line and having pit stops areas to allow other trains to , but you would think if for nothing else than for traffic management and fluidity of travel they'd want two sets of rail one for each direction the whole course. Unless I'm totally misreading how this happened.
 
The passenger train engineer ignored a red light.

OK to vilify him. He's dead. Wonder what pressures he was under to hold to his schedule??

Perhaps the freight train was not a usual occurrence on his run??

They used to have a "token ring" system in India, when it was laced with a whole bunch of single tracks. Anyone not having the "ring", that crashed his train, was executed, if he lived through the wreck by jumping off. And they did.

That's where the token ring network came from, for you old MIS farts out there.
 
jessica. said:
Had the train operator lived I would have hoped that he would be charged with manslaughter. Not because of "an eye for an eye" rather, the disregard for the red light signal was clearly reckless and while he clearly didn't intend to kill, his behavior did and therefore it is within the boundries of manslaughter.
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I think it would actually come under negligent homicide.
iJohnHenry said:
The passenger train engineer ignored a red light.

OK to vilify him. He's dead. Wonder what pressures he was under to hold to his schedule??
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Well, there's evidence he sent a text message minutes before the crash, so this isn't pressure to keep on schedule (how many commuter rail systems in the US are even close to being 95% on time on average?)
 
Doctor Q said:
I'm sorry to hear that, IJ Reilly. Let's hope they make changes to prevent this kind of tragedy in the future. It seems to be a case where human error can occur, but technology can help solve the problem.
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Thanks Q. I didn't know him really well but his abrupt departure still left me with a hard to describe feeling of disorientation. He was a yoga instructor here. I took classes from him a few times though I usually go to another one. My wife happened to go to his class just a couple days before the accident. He was an interesting character -- a former Marine who took up teaching yoga, mainly to elderly and handicapped people. I think he was teaching a class for the blind in LA that day. He missed his regular train back and caught the next one. So random.
 
guifa said:
I'm surprised these things can happen.

In Madrid as far as I know, there aren't any commuter tracks that run consistently bidirectionally. If they need to change a train's direction, it hops to another rail that runs parallel to it. I understand freights being on commercial rail trying to save money by only building one line and having pit stops areas to allow other trains to , but you would think if for nothing else than for traffic management and fluidity of travel they'd want two sets of rail one for each direction the whole course. Unless I'm totally misreading how this happened.
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Maybe they don't have parallel tracks along this route because of narrow passages through the area, or a lack of right of way, or due to the cost of building and maintaining more tracks. That's all brought into question when there's an accident like this.

There is a side track, which the Metrolink engineer was supposed to have used to "step aside", but it depends on signal lights and human reactions.
 
i think i saw a news article about the engineer texting on his cell phone one minute before the crash, instead of concentrating on the train... sounds like it could have been avoidable
 
Doctor Q said:
Maybe they don't have parallel tracks along this route because of narrow passages through the area, or a lack of right of way, or due to the cost of building and maintaining more tracks. That's all brought into question when there's an accident like this.

There is a side track, which the Metrolink engineer was supposed to have used to "step aside", but it depends on signal lights and human reactions.
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The accident occurred just east of the single-track Santa Susana tunnel, which was built over 100 years ago by the Southern Pacific Railroad. A siding was constructed at the Metrolink station in Chatsworth. This is where the train was supposed to wait until the track was clear. The engineer had to blow through two or three red or amber lights to get into this situation. Assuming he wasn't completely distracted the only other reason I can imagine for him missing the signals was being blinded by the sun, which probably would have been right in his face at that time.
 
IJ Reilly said:
.............The engineer had to blow through two or three red or amber lights to get into this situation...................
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Is there no fail safe on the train when a signal is passed at stop?

Trains around my way have a trip that is activated by a signal at stop, if tripped the automatic brake applies.
 
No fail safe. There's been a lot of talk about what they call "positive control" systems, but it seems they are expensive and far from perfect.
 
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