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

Details seem sketchy at the moment, but sounds like a bad wreck in South Carolina.

"JUST IN: Amtrak says train operating between New York and Miami with 8 crew members and 139 passengers has collided with a freight train in South Carolina. Local authorities are responding to the scene, with injuries reported" - NBCNews

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/91 ... ge-derails" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/amt ... e97af35b33" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Train 91 in Cayce, SC which isn't far from the capital of Columbia.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/amtrak-passeng ... d=52826058" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mod note: As always, keep it civil and fact based without wild speculation... I'm sure some details will fill themselves in shortly.

Amtrak Silver Star 91 - CSX collision Cayce, SC. Two fatalities 70 injuries.

R&DB wrote:Amtrak Silver Star 91 - CSX collision Cayce, SC. Two fatalities 70 injuries.

Here's the story, courtesy of The State.

http://www.thestate.com/news/local/arti ... 32739.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair use quote:

A crash involving an Amtrak passenger train and a freight train in Cayce, South Carolina, left at least two people dead and more than 70 injured.

All the passengers have been removed from Amtrak 91, which was operating from New York to Miami.

The crash between the Amtrak train and a CSX freight train occurred near Charleston Highway and Pine Ridge Road around 2:35 a.m. Sunday morning. The lead engine and a few passenger cars derailed, according to Amtrak.

Coming from the air transport industry, within which there has not been a passenger fatality on a US flagged carrier since 2009 (Colgan Air BUF), not any on US soil since '13 (Asiana - Korean flagged - SFO), and none worldwide during '17, Mr. Anderson must wonder "what kind of demo derby did I sign up for?"

From CNN website. A British forum reports the Amtrak unit is # 47

Based on the video and images from the scene, this two opposing trains hitting head-on on the same track! That's not supposed to happen! Both trains clearly on that inside track. The only saving grace here if they must not have been moving too fast.

The front of Amtrak 47 looks real bad. Hope the engine crew is ok.

No Amtrak tragedy is complete without comments on freerepublic.com ranging from tasteless jokes to semiserious conspiracy theories in and out of the U.S. Govt. [rolls eyes]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3629078/posts" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

motor1

ADMIN EDIT Read at your own risk. JWP.

I don't think that there are enough passenger trains on this part of the railroad to require Positive Train Control for that reason.

It's signaled track so it is hard to understand how this could happen. Two fatalities, looks like the lead CSX freight unit took a severe impact.

Wow, it took 4 hours and 2 minutes for someone to mention PTC. I wonder what we’ll cling to when these wrecks happen after the billions of dollars are spent on making them impossible.

MCL1981 wrote:Based on the video and images from the scene, this two opposing trains hitting head-on on the same track! That's not supposed to happen! Both trains clearly on that inside track. The only saving grace here if they must not have been moving too fast.

My thoughts and prayers to all involved. Hate to see this in the industry.

The damage to the entire length of the top of the CSX locomotive tells me otherwise. The Amtrak loco climbed up and on top of the CSX loco - need a pretty sizeable force to lift a 135-ton locomotive like that. The accordion action further back in the train is another indicator of force released laterally. Based on a look at a Google satellite of the area, lack of derailed autoracks and the end of siding just around the corner, my guess is the CSX train was stopped and possibly (hopefully) empty (access road is a good place to get a cab in).

I don't see any obvious signals at this location, is it just non-controlled side track? I can't tell if the switches are power switches or back savers, but the derail on the side track does not look like a power derail. The next siding to the northeast has signals (can see the shadow and they are visible from the crossing on street view).

I'll speculate the switch was lined the wrong way, sending Amtrak down the siding at speed and into the CSX train. Now why that happened will be the crux of the matter.

This is the satellite shot from google for the location of the incident:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mi ... 09184&z=19" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Based on the video snippets above, the rear cars of the Amtrak were definitely on the siding. So the switch is going to be the focal point of what happened, I'm betting. I also wonder if there is any aspect for the switch alignment, or if it's a simple hand throw. Hard to tell but there is something near the switch on the northern end (where the Amtrak was coming from). Also one of the screenshots shows a yellow light over the rear of the Amtrak - a signal light or a street light? (why would a street light be there, but who knows...)