Commuter train in fatal wreck ran red light!

[dmdrake]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26680908/

[sethmcs]

Terrible tragedy. My thoughts are with the families of the dead and injured.

[SuperFudd]

The cummuter train management blames it's engineer who is conviniently dead. Why did he fail to stop? Did the signaling system fail to tell him to stop? Was he exausted from being forced to work too many hours? Why is management in such a hurry to blame him?
Another point, it seem to me the media seems to be even more incompitant than the dead engineer is claimed to be. Why is the engineer of the passenger train dead and no one on the frieght was even hurt? The news story claims the loco was pulling the passenger train and was pushed back into the lead passenger car. I guess they are too stupid / ignorant to ask the questions I am. I am betting they are wrong and the loco was pushing the passenger train. The freight loco went through the lead car killing the engineer.
We shall see.

[Captain_Collins]

The cummuter train management blames it's engineer who is conviniently dead. Why did he fail to stop? Did the signaling system fail to tell him to stop? Was he exausted from being forced to work too many hours? Why is management in such a hurry to blame him?
Another point, it seem to me the media seems to be even more incompitant than the dead engineer is claimed to be. Why is the engineer of the passenger train dead and no one on the frieght was even hurt? The news story claims the loco was pulling the passenger train and was pushed back into the lead passenger car. I guess they are too stupid / ignorant to ask the questions I am. I am betting they are wrong and the loco was pushing the passenger train. The freight loco went through the lead car killing the engineer.
We shall see.

It has already been established that the metrolink train was being pulled: http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=30912

[SuperFudd]

Yes, I noticed, except there is a photo showing a yellow loco cab first well into a passenger car. VERY strange!

[Elukka]

Are you really certain you know this better than the investigators who do this as their jobs and are actually there?

[SuperFudd]

That is one of my points, wait for the investigation. Yet the commuter train management has already hung the dead engineer.
I am looking forward to hearing how a yellow (presumably Union Pacific) locomotive got buried, cab first, deep into a passenger car, and why no one on the freight was even hurt.

[backyard]

The blame has not been specified by the NTSB.

In fact the NTSB spokesperson could not give count of the number of locomotives at the press briefing.

It's more than obvious in one of the pics that the Metro F40PHI and the UP SD9043AC married head-on, then turned over still attached.

This means they probably arose up off the ground and turned over together.

The Metro engine telescoped all but cab into the first car

All three locomotives had black boxes, the UP engine had a camera facing forward.

...the extractions continue...

[crman123]

I hardly think there is a conspiracy theory going on here....Two trains somehow managed to hit each other head on. The UP loco (obviously alot stronger than the F59 (I'm assuming) didn't sustain as much damage, and also is alot heavier, shoved the Metrolink Loco into the lead passenger car. The End.

Edit: The Metrolink train was being pulled. There's no way the UP loco did that. Considering the metrolink locomotive was wedged into the forward passenger car...

[SuperFudd]

Perhaps the commuter loco and the lead UP frieght loco rose up and fell to the side and the second UP loco buried itself into the passenger car??

[llebrez]

Here goes my grain of salt: My office is next to the tracks in Ventura County. I am lucky to see the trains going by all day long! The freighter passed by my office southbound at around 3 PM with two locos and not a long string of box and hopper cars. There are not so many freighters, so one going by is noticed easily. Metrolink normally runs loco first on North bound trains. The cars are the standard Bombardier two levels used by Toronto GO trains and many other administrations. The freighter was coming down the Santa Susana pass after clearing a 500' tunnel. There is a siding somewhere there, and this must have a signal. So the questions are several: How come the freighter cleared a signal that must have been red because a Metrolink train was going up? or was green... Next: I thought that all train traffic is controlled by dispatchers seating in an aircondition room. Did anybody noticed the movement of these trains? I thought that engineers routinely talk with dispatchers about what they are doing. A train (freighter) going down on a single track when there is passenger traffic coming oposite should be enough to get the attention of a dispatcher at the aircondition room. And then, I thought that if you pass a red light, an emergency signal and then emergency brake is activated. The engineer could havebeen distracted by the teletexting they say he was making. So, the emergency signals and braking did not functioned? or they don't have this basic feature implemented when you "transport" more than 250 passenger! It may sound stupid, but there are many basic unanswered questions at this time, and I hope all will be known in due time. Meanwhile I look by the window, and there are no trains gong by!

[Red_Rattler]

Just a couple of things, I suppose the engineer means driver in USA talk?

It states that it happened near a horseshoe curve. Woud that be a main horse-shoe curve where you can see trains in the opposite direction crossing each other? (I have a horse shoe curve in one my videos on my main video page, showing two Coast Starlight trains crossing.) Would this be the horse shoe curve they are refering to?

I'm also wondering why Chatsworth seems familar to me for some reason.

Could we please ask people to stop speculation (including the other thread, and why do we need two threads on this?).

I'm not trying to speculate here, but the news article says that a the passenger train went through a red signal was a probable cause. Their maybe any number of factors that we are not aware of.

And I think this paragraph from the article is important

What we believe happened, barring any new information from the NTSB, is we believe that our engineer failed to stop ... and that was the cause of the accident.

Our media here says their are concerns because these trains are pushed one way, and pulled the other way. I don't believe that that matters. But some things are puzzling, and/or not making sense to me:

It's still not clear to me, if the trains were travelling in the opposite direction, or heading in the same direction, along with some other things.

[AJ_Fox]

They collided head on. I have seen three different threads on the subjuct, all well intentioned. In 24 hours I am thinking of merging them all so that they are all in one thread for easier viewing by the Community Members.

Cheers

AJ

[Red_Rattler]

They collided head on.

I'm not sure of this, but did it happen within the siding/passing loop area, between the turnouts/points/switches? (Edit: I'm asking for a reason)

Our news claims that Metrolink is to blame, however they [Metrolink] doubt wether he was texting on his mobile phone to a train enthusiast.

And IF (repeat IF) they are correct about the train enthusiast, how will this event effect rail enthusiasts?

[Mitchey]

It turns out the commuter train passed a red light, that the driver missed, because he was texting on his phone.
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