Cab Ride From Hell -- BNSF Cornfield Meet on Tape

[EMTRailfan]

enjoythesilence,

I finally found it. I originally just pasted from the original YouTube post to the search bar.

Dieter,

I agree with you whole heartedly. Show the rookie. I've never worked on the rails, but in my career, I have seen a lot of carnage from other carelessness. I believe that schools should be showing photos and videos of REAL accident scenes in their Drivers' Ed classes with body parts missing, bodies tangled in cars, etc. Actual footage, not staged videos and photos. It may make more kids think twice before drinking before they drive.

[Dieter]

EMTRailfan, Thanks for your support.

A few years ago I had an OL presentation for a Cub Scout Pack and some of the Granola Headed Parents freaked at a short film we showed of two kids and what happened when they climbed into a boxcar with an open door. If you haven't seen the film, it leads to a fatality. It's not Teletubbies, it's REALITY. You play around the ROW, it isn't always going to be a happy ending, and kids need to learn that. Unfortunately as I'm sure most of you know, too many PARENTS don't grasp that concept.

That led to me having to defend my posterior in committee.

I argued first that the goal of Scouting is to foster independence and responsibility and cognisance of the world around you. Sheltering people doesn't do any good. All that does is cloud reality and on occasion, to help foster an emotional cripple who cannot cope.

I told the parents that if a few kids had nightmares about it, GOOD. If it saves JUST ONE LIFE of ONE KID IN THAT ROOM --- G O O D. If a kid is now scared to pieces of climbing into an open freight car because of that film, I think you will all agree with me -- GOOD.

In the case of the "Cornfield Meet", it just reaffirmed my reflex of never taking anything for granted. If you see something on the same track ahead of you, I don't care if there's a switch in between, I'D HIT THE BRAKE.

[Off Pending]

Where's a link to see the rest of the footage? I would really like to see what happens next, especially since nobody was injured.

D/

I believe a correction is in order. There were several rather serious injuries, but there were no deaths in this collision.

Unfortunately, an email making its way around the Internet incorrectly claims that two people were killed in this wreck. That's not true.

[Dieter]

Someone asked if it's white noise or brakes down. That's definately the brakes because you can see the unit slow down. Did this guy jump like the other guy? It seems that the breaks are released and from that point the speed is consistant to the collision.

D/

[thirdtrick]

In the case of the "Cornfield Meet", it just reaffirmed my reflex of never taking anything for granted. If you see something on the same track ahead of you, I don't care if there's a switch in between, I'D HIT THE BRAKE.

that's not how it works in CTC: signal indication. this would have been a routine meet. if you plugged your train every time you had to go in the hole for a man holding the main, you'd be fired or worse.

[Jtgshu]

Im not sure which video you saw, but the one ive seen the camera lens (im assuming) get demolished upon impact - but the microphone keeps recording - it goes for another 25 or so seconds, but the screen is just blue.

The last frame before it goes blue shows the impact and the glass cracking and shattering

I agree - i think the film should be used in training for all types of railroaders. Yes, it is very disturbing, however, its a fact of the job and industry, and it happens way too often. Passenger, commuter or freight, it doens't matter, the results are the same.

"The rules are written in blood"

Most cab signal systems do not enforce a stop - so a train could be rolling by a stop signal at 15-20mph or faster. Automatic Train Stop requires the engineer to acknowledge a change in the signals, and if he dones't acknowledge, then a penaltiy application occurs - Automatic Train Control requires the engineer to be at or below a certain speed, in relation to the signal on the cab signal system. (A restricting would be in the cabs either just before the stop signal or just after it, depending on how its set up) so cab signals with ATC and ATS COULD have prevented it, but might not have.

[thirdtrick]

"It's around 6:00 am On June 14, 2006. We are riding a westbound BNSF train approaching Kismet Siding, located a few miles northwest of the town of Madera in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Our train is supposed to take the siding to meet an eastbound, and as our train approaches you can see the signals are set up accordingly: a double yellow indication one signal block in advance of the siding, and red over green to enter the siding. Unfortunately, the Eastbound doesn't get stopped in time - I haven't been able to dig up a definitive answer as to why not. He passes the signal at the end of the siding, thus dropping our signal to double red, and proceeds to strike our lead unit a glancing blow as he passes the fouling point of the switch. He's going about 22 mph at impact, and we're doing 30. According to the FRA, 'all crew members of both trains were taken to a local hospital with injuries, a total of 7 locomotives and 17 cars, including 1 hazardous material and 1 tank car derailed.' There were reportedly five crew members total. They all survived: four had minor injuries, but our engineer was seriously injured. There were eleven locomotives total, four on our train and seven on the eastbound, not all of which derailed. The locomotive you see coming at us is BNSF 4059, a GE Dash 9-44CW. We are riding an identical locomotive, BNSF 4479."

The 4059 ended up looking like this: http://www.locophotos.com/PhotoDetails. ... toID=45963

The 4479 was in this condition: http://www.locophotos.com/PhotoDetails. ... toID=45962

[MathProf64]

I don't think I've seen this link posted here, I saw it in another forum. It appears to be the official investigation report for the incident. It looks authentic. My apologies if it's not.

http://www.fresnobee.com/static/2007/ne ... gation.pdf

_Howard

[route_rock]

Just so you know, this video WAS USED for training! How it got to the general population is agood question. My RFE showed it to us as it was sent to all TM's and RFE's to use for a safety marathon.
Yeah I always keep an eye on guys coming up to meets on single track in CTC. But I am not going to have the engineer plug it unless that guy is moving and my diverging signal has dropped to all stop. then we are going to join the birds!

[thebigc]

Cab Signals would have had zero effect on the outcome in this incident. You can see in the video that the train taking the siding had a good signal until the train on the main shot the block, which still could have happened if CSS rules were in place.

Even in CSS territory, you can get by a stop signal at 20mph.

[Jersey_Mike]

Cab signals would have had a HUGE effect on this incident. If you read the accident report (which appears to be genuine) the primary cause was the crew of Train #1 either missing the signals or misreading the signals or both.

CSS would have made the fact of them riding an APPROACH undeniable and if they were in fact asleep it would have put the drop on their little snooze fest.

[conrail_engineer]

Cab Signals might or might not have made the difference.

It depends on what really happened - whether the hogger was sawing wood in his seat, unconscious; or whether he was "sleeping with his eyes open" - running on autopilot, going through the motions, but too out of it to think clearly.

The fact he'd adjusted his throttle a couple of times suggests the latter.

According to the accident report, the collision happened right AT sunrise - a bad time for the sleep-deprived. If the guy got short rack ops the night before, or if his schedule was all over the place, he might have been completely exhausted.

Apparently he'd gotten called around 10 PM after being off for about eighty hours. Meaning, probably, he'd slept the night before at the "normal" time; was up all day; and then got called just as he was getting ready for bed.

Bad mojo, that.

I see this as one more argument for a semi-structured work schedule, with call "windows" or at the least, the right to "drop" if not rested for work. How many times do we have to see this, that humans don't work well on erratic, structureless, twelve-hour schedules?

[NV290]

The fact the crew who blew the red jumped (you can see it in the video), clearly they were not asleep at the last minute. If they were they more then likley would have awoken to the collision. The fact they jumped before the collison shows they must have woken up too late to stop.

As for cab signals preventing this, as others have said, they might have. Had the crew been awake but simply disregarding them. But cab signals do not make it impossible to blow through a red. I know alot of people simply do not understand how they work. But i have friends on the MTA who know of trains blowing by reds at close to 20mph with cab signals.

Scary video nonetheless. I think cameras in Locomotives are an excellent tool for training and for protetcting crews from lawsuits. Event recorders are great, but they do nothing to explain what a trespasser or motorists actions where. The camera's fill that void. The mic's mounted externally help as well to pick up the horn and bell. But i see no problem with mounting them inside the cab to help explain alot of things that an event recorder cannot. Such as are crews calling signals, distracted by something else, etc. Airlines have used them for decades and they have answered alot of questions when nothing else could. The policy of them only being used for accident investigation and not for anything else should not make anybody worried. Except the people who have something to hide. I have yet to hear a valid argument as to why cab mounted microphones used only for accident invesigations are a bad thing. It's the people who don't like to call signals, to not use thier cell phones, to sleep, etc who have a problem with them. In other words, people who are lazy and/or don't like to follow rules.

[thirdtrick]

I have yet to hear a valid argument as to why cab mounted microphones used only for accident invesigations are a bad thing. It's the people who don't like to call signals, to not use thier cell phones, to sleep, etc who have a problem with them. In other words, people who are lazy and/or don't like to follow rules.

yeah, but wouldn't it be a shame if they fired you for not calling all those clear signals just because your voice can't be heard above the deafening background roar? if they're so concerned about safety, how about installing a microphone for the radio!

[conrail_engineer]

I have yet to hear a valid argument as to why cab mounted microphones used only for accident invesigations are a bad thing. It's the people who don't like to call signals, to not use thier cell phones, to sleep, etc who have a problem with them. In other words, people who are lazy and/or don't like to follow rules.

yeah, but wouldn't it be a shame if they fired you for not calling all those clear signals just because your voice can't be heard above the deafening background roar? if they're so concerned about safety, how about installing a microphone for the radio!

And how about the tedium of having to watch what you say, twelve hours, six or seven days a week? Who wants to live that way, with the constant fear that an offhand remark or observation may be flung back at you weeks or months later, as a chargeable offense?

Airline crews do it? But most airline trips are not twelve hours or longer. The sheer AMOUNT of time spent out there makes constant fear of the Thought Police a real irritant.

If you think it's a good idea...fine. Come in and work like that. Because when they start recording my every word...I will find something else to do.