Multiple fatalities reported in Missouri train derailment

[TLO]

CNN
—
There are multiple fatalities and at least 50 people who were injured after an Amtrak train derailed Monday in Missouri, Eric McKenzie, the superintendent with Chariton County Ambulance Service, told CNN.

Amtrak said in a statement the train collided with a truck at a public crossing near the city of Mendon at about 1:42 p.m. CT.

Eight cars and two locomotives left the track “after striking a truck that was obstructing a public crossing near Mendon, Missouri,” company officials said in an updated statement.

Contra Costa Sheriff deputies investigate the scene after an Amtrak train collided with a vehicle in Brentwood, Calif., on Sunday, June 26, 2022. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group via AP)
Amtrak train collides with vehicle at California intersection without crossing arms, killing three
Amtrak had said earlier that there were approximately 243 passengers and 12 crew members onboard the train.

Cpl. Justin Dunn, a spokesperson for Missouri State Highway Patrol Troop B, said authorities are still trying to ascertain the number of fatalities. The train hit a dump truck, he added.

A school has been turned into a triage center for victims with minor injuries, he said.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by Hank Hill

CNN
—
There are multiple fatalities and at least 50 people who were injured after an Amtrak train derailed Monday in Missouri

They are probably all recently vaccinated and that's why they died.

[ghak99]

I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often.

If you haven't crossed many of our rural crossings you can't even begin to understand how fun it is to get a loaded truck jumped across some of the newly elevated rails. Some of them are steep enough you literally have to back up and get a run at them. Add in a curve, an elevation change, and a tree line and you're basically just rolling the dice because you can't hear the warnings over rodding the shit our of your rig to get moving up their new slopes until it's too late. These specific trains haul ****ing balls through that area as well.

They'll continue talking about putting in crossing arms. They'll continue using engineers who have never ran a ragged out loaded rig up to one of their elevated approaches. They'll continue not talking about how fast those trains move through that area.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Bwana

I have a cousin that recently retired, who was a train engineer for Amtrak for decades. His route skirted Glacier National Park, up through northern Idaho and onto Seattle. He has some pretty wild stories after all the time. Hitting boulders, moose, bears, cows, you name it. He had some close calls with vehicles and humans along the tracks as well, but got lucky there. The worst thing he had to deal with, was the boulders, according to him. He said if you hit a big one, it will derail an engine in a heartbeat.

I rode a commuter train into Chicago for 20 years. There were generally three or more pedestrian fatalities per year on the line I used, the vast majority of them suicides. It's certainly an effective method - there's no coming back from getting blasted by a train going 70 mph. While I was fortunate to never actually see an impact, I've seen the aftermath more times than care to remember. But as bad as that was, seeing the looks on the faces of the conductors/engineers who witnessed people exploding like giant bugs on a windshield right in front of them, and hearing the pain in their voices, was even worse. That shit extracts a heavy toll.

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by loochy

They are probably all recently vaccinated and that's why they died.

I heard there were no windows on the train and it was remote controlled

[Dartgod]

A fourth person has died.

[Flying High D]

AutomAted train?

[srvy]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Also fair - I can't say I recall ever having one of the Amtrak's come down the track. Makes sense that a passenger train would focus on noise reduction.

But honestly, just rolling the windows down and hearing a freight train when you can't see the damn thing yet will spook you a bit.

As has been noted and as I'm sure you're well aware - lines of sight around those rural crossings are often pretty lousy.

Combine bad sightlines with a fast, quiet train and it's a recipe for this sort of thing. Do you know if passenger trains have the same sort of requirement to blow a whistle through towns or is that not even a real requirement? I grew up in a place called Parkville in the northland; little river town (that's grown up a bit since I left) and there was a train that came through the bottoms there every night around 9p and it would lay on that whistle every time. You'd hear it come up the valley behind Park College and into my neighborhood.

One would think you'd wanna get on a whistle if you're in charge of a quiet train.

They have a requirement to sound the whistle when approaching a crossing but as the RR safety person will tell you never count on that depending on the Engineer. He told you will know an Engineer who has had a crossing accident they will blow the shit out of the whistle.

It wasn't till 911 that the RR Companys got serious about people on their ROW fouling the tracks. It was impossible to get a RR safety person to stay with you while you do the required work on their right of way. Land surveyors have to retrace the centerline of railroad row to establish the boundary of private property that butts up to RR Tracks. WE would just get out on the tracks and go establishing the tangent lines and spiral curvature of the tracks. Trust when I say a one-mile-long freight train can sneak up on you in a tree lined curve.

I know Parkville well the engineering firm I worked for was City of Parkville's on call engineer when the train derailed in downtone square near English landing we surveyed the accident site for them and reset the boundary on the building the train struck. Have also been contracted to do train crossing accident surveys to reproduce for the court mapping of the accident site all over Missouri and Kansas.

[srvy]

The wife of a dump truck driver killed in a collision with an Amtrack train is suing The district BNSF roadmaster and Chariton County seeking $25,000 from each. Says that crossing has had many complaints and meeting over the dangerous uncontrolled crossing. If I was the county and or the roadmaster I would settle right now. If that road grade is too steep and the RR ROW wasn't maintained for the line of sight then it could be one big ass settlement.
https://fox4kc.com/news/missouri-new...k-train-crash/

[F150]

Blame will get placed somewhere because we have to blame something someone.

But for the majority of rural folks who drive gravel township and county roads daily, we know instinctively that curves are taken wide and slow because weeds/brush/fence lines grow up in vegetation in summer. We know steep hills you move to the far right cause you cannot see oncoming traffic, we know that the next rig you see can be a honda civic or a John deere sprayer that need all the road and then some.

The truck driver made the most fatal error you can make at a RR crossing. The Train always has the right of way. At near 90 MPH or at 25 mph that train cannot stop.

So $ will be paid to the dead. Rules will be modified. The Rich RR's will be blamed for not killing more trees wider. The landowners on either side will do nothing, the county will look for scapegoats

Dont be that truck driver. Stop at rural RR crossings. Look. Listen. The school bus has to open the door at crossings at full stop to see and hear.

Sad deal, but those crossings are in the millions and we will never see a day when it is not the car/truck drivers responsibility to be safe.

[neech]

Originally Posted by srvy

The wife of a dump truck driver killed in a collision with an Amtrack train is suing The district BNSF roadmaster and Chariton County seeking $25,000 from each. Says that crossing has had many complaints and meeting over the dangerous uncontrolled crossing. If I was the county and or the roadmaster I would settle right now. If that road grade is too steep and the RR ROW wasn't maintained for the line of sight then it could be one big ass settlement.

I agree that they should settle quickly with them, on the flip side they would be admitting guilt and the passengers on the train will very likely be part of a class action lawsuit against them as well.

Brown & Crouppen phone lines are quite active right now I would think.

[notorious]

That photo concludes that YouTube commentators are dead wrong.

[scho63]

Instead of sending $40 billion to Ukraine, we should be fixing our roads and bridges.

So piss poor that this would happen in 2022.

[ghak99]

On June 11th a local farmer posted a video taken while parked on the crossing ramp while a train came by at ~45 mph complaining about how dangerous it was. From the time you can see the train you have about ~7 seconds to clear the track.

The post crash math problems for those who hated them in high school.

The speed limit is 90 mph at the crossing where the collision occurred Monday in western Missouri, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said. The Southwest Chief was traveling about 89 mph when it began blowing its horn about a quarter mile from the collision site, she said.

1320'... 89mph... If you hear the first horn, how long do you have to clear the track?

This one is little easier. If you can't hear the first horn you have ~7 seconds of visibility at 45mph based on the farmer's video. How much time does that give you to clear the track at 90mph?

Loaded dump truck. Steep incline.

Let the lawsuits begin.

[rtmike]

NTSB video I watched said speed limit was 89 @ intersection and engineer was doing 87.
Also the engineer/s got on their horns earlier than requirements, (prolly since they seen it happening?)

The ex soon learned why I would turn opposite way we were going at a stop sign if it was on a curve so I could see car traffic coming instead of wracking my neck.

[srvy]

That track is a tangent line for miles before any curve. Tracks lay at a 45* angle to the N S E W cardinal direction section line roads that cross the rail line. This makes it even more challenging to cross and cran your neck around to get visual each way while on a steep grade up and over the RR elevated bed. The farmer with land at that crossing had pleaded with the County and RR to change the grade approach to cross those tracks. He said he barely made it across before never seeing or hearing a train coming. That Amtrak train was traveling at 90 mph to NE looking to the SW on google there are about 6 more significant crossings before the collision so that whistle could have been as much as a mile away or more. Without witnesses, it's going to come down to accident surveys and recreation of the event. High-definition 3d scanning will get an accurate XYZ picture of that intersection and siteline obstructions.