Amtrak 91 - CSX Collision Cayce, SC - 2/4/18

let's not kid ourselves the railroad industry as a whole has been operating under out of date ideologies, not consistent with safe operation. All are responsible.

A swinging arm can be adapted over time to a rolling fence.

A dispatchers paper form can be questioned for accuracy.Maybe if trains communicated their positions with each other these accidents could become avoidable.

Richard Anderson, Amtrak's new President/CEO, is coming in here at a horrible time. Do you realize he is "volunteering" and not taking any salary? Not sure if the coming firestorm is worth the trouble. No opinion on Anderson, but who would want this job for nothing?

Checking Google maps, there doesn't appear to be a signal at that switch but I can't be sure. But why the hell was that switch aligned into the siding? Someone screwed up real bad here and you probably can't blame Amtrak for this one. What a tragic event.

Mr. MCL, somewhere around here:

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.9173495 ... 312!8i6656" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Many passengers were asleep when the train began shaking violently and then slammed to a halt, passenger Derek Pettaway told CBS."

http://www.wral.com/south-carolina-trai ... /17312782/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So as envisioned, the train was at speed when it blew through the switch and onto the siding, then collided with the freight.

Questions for NTSB
1. Was the signal operating properly?
2. Was the switch manually operated or remotely actuated?
3. If manual, was it called in to dispatch? Why wasn't it locked back out?
4. If remote, did the actuator work properly? Contacts clean/working to show it was locked out? Code line up?

640 feet from the switch to the collision point. At just under 60 MPH, that's about 7.5 seconds of warning if they had a good signal...

bostontrainguy wrote:Richard Anderson, Amtrak's new President/CEO, is coming in here at a horrible time. Do you realize he is "volunteering" and not taking any salary? Not sure if the coming firestorm is worth the trouble. No opinion on Anderson, but who would want this job for nothing?

Checking Google maps, there doesn't appear to be a signal at that switch but I can't be sure. But why the hell was that switch aligned into the siding? Someone screwed up real bad here and you probably can't blame Amtrak for this one. What a tragic event.

Don't be so naive. You don't get nothing for nothing. The man made $27 million before being asked to leave Delta, relevance and expanding portfolio is very important.
Not one is volunteering.
Wick and Dick will both collect a healthy 'bonus' from the taxpayers.

Admin Note: I just cleaned up a bunch of inflammatory posts and ill-founded speculation bordering on nonsense. I am not discouraging reasonable speculation and discussion of causation and result, or even the voicing of harsh opinions. It’s been a rough stretch no doubt.

But this accident on host railroad trackage has nothing to do with route profitability or Amtrak management. That may be an issue in the Cascades wreck; there’s not even a SNIFF of that here, nor in the West Virginia wreck.

Further inflammatory posts will be dealt with accordingly.

CNN just reported that the signals in the area were "off line" at the time of the accident.

Telecomtodd wrote:"Many passengers were asleep when the train began shaking violently and then slammed to a halt, passenger Derek Pettaway told CBS."

http://www.wral.com/south-carolina-trai ... /17312782/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So as envisioned, the train was at speed when it blew through the switch and onto the siding, then collided with the freight.

Questions for NTSB
1. Was the signal operating properly?
2. Was the switch manually operated or remotely actuated?
3. If manual, was it called in to dispatch? Why wasn't it locked back out?
4. If remote, did the actuator work properly? Contacts clean/working to show it was locked out? Code line up?

640 feet from the switch to the collision point. At just under 60 MPH, that's about 7.5 seconds of warning if they had a good signal...

Apparently CSX was in the right track but CSX was doing work to the signals as per https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonvill ... te-of.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Amtrak should have been notified in advance of the work as the switch should have directed the Amtrak train to the right track but it looks like the CSX employees working on the switch left it open. Shouldn’t there be a supervisor checking off the work to make sure its done appropriately?

I thought Amtrak was at fault with manual processees initially but this was infrastructure at the track level which routed the train to the wrong track due to maintenance work. CSX was keeping their system modern as usual with improvements but failed to reset the switch correctly.

Seems like CSX needs to hire additional personnel to supervise work to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Train conductor and engineers are a dangerous job which put their lives at the mercy of others.

The signal system was suspended so the train would have been operating on paper authority. 59 mph is MAS when signal system is suspended.

Wow.
Amtrak 91 Silver Star CSX collision 2 dead South Carolina
Foto screencap: Cafe Car that snapped/bowed in half:
http://www.wltx.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; via YouTube

8th Notch wrote:

SouthernRailway wrote:Are the Viewliners repairable?

Not trying to beat up on Amtrak, but after Metro-North had a few incidents, there was a big push to improve its safety practices. Time for the same for Amtrak?

How can you blame Amtrak here when we don’t know the cause?

It just seems like one thing after another. Amtrak may have zero fault for this one or for the wreck in Virginia, but the Cascades wreck?

What happened to Operation Lifesaver? Freight RRs run it, but maybe Amtrak could encourage Operation Lifesaver trains to tour the US?

Brit here.

On a US legal point of order, I remember reading in comments on the recent crash near Seattle that Amtrak has a shield law, artificially capping their total liability for ordinary damages for death and injury in any one incident at a certain figure.

Does that law apply only to Amtrak? IF another party - say CSX - was legally liable in a particular incident, they would have no cap on their liability to injured parties and damages would be unlimited?

I wonder if the constitutionality of that law has ever been tested...

Thanks.

adamj023 wrote:Redacted from deleted post. -Jeff.

What does ownership have to do with it? CSX is privately owned, and has had more than its fair share of incidents not to mention the signs point to today’s wreck being their fault.

This wreck has nothing to do with the sustainability of long haul services, so take that discussion to another topic.

Heading southbound on the single track, about 300 feet north of the Route 321/176/21 overpass, there is a first turnout diverging to the right to the siding on which the accident happened, and then about 100 feet later (further south) there is a turnout to the left, to what appears to be a 2nd main (track and bed look like the main). At the first turnout (to the siding) you can see a metal control box. Here is a google map 3D view (might not work for some of you) where you can clearly see the box. https://www.google.com/maps/@33.9091321 ... a=!3m1!1e3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (At this close-up, train cars and some other items look distorted sometimes. This location just over 1/2 mile south of G B Norman's map link just above, which for me comes up north of Interstate 26, which is where perhaps a signal might have been.)
I don't know if the electrical cabinet next to the switch means the turnout to the siding was electronically controlled or if it could have been hand-throw, or if it relates to signals.

Admin note: Please read my previous note. Comments that aren’t on topic or otherwise inappropriate will be deleted.

Two Amtrak employees are dead and over 100 others injured. This is NOT the place.

Keep the snide remarks and other unrelated observations to yourself.