10 Dead, 200 hurt as California Train hits SUV
Words fail me…I’ll be back…once I confirm that my friends/relatives survived or were not on that train(s). Hope no Dopers were victims of this senseless idiot.
“deranged individual” indeed. As Stephen King would say, he’s bucking for a Dogshit of the Year award. I feel badly for him that he is obviously hurting, but if you want to kill yourself, don’t do it in a way that hurts other people. My sympathy for all the victims and families of his victims.
Some of us escaped that one by a hair…
So. I work on a big 'ol construction project out here in L.A. Our firm works closely with the MTA, and our jobsite buildings are in the same yard. I take the train to this office four days a week. The line that got it was not mine, but some of our MTA counterparts DO ride that line. Haven’t heard about anybody injured yet, but what I did hear from the people who made it here on the train this morning, was that they took ONE EARLIER train than usual today for various reasons. Glad they all seem to be ok.
On an unrelated (to this incident) note, I took a very early train home yesterday because I had to drop some stuff off at my other office and wanted to get home at a reasonable time. In Baldwin Park, the train hit a shopping cart, rocked the shiznit out of it, and broke an air hose. So. We sat in Baldwin Park for an hour and a half while they fixed it. We went a little further, and when we got to Montclair, they told us they were going to take the train back to Union Station and we all had to get off and wait for another train! Well. The first train to come in was too full for everyone to get on, and they told me that I had to wait for the next one…which came roughly 30 minutes later. End story is that I got into San Bernardino at 7:30 when I should have pulled in 4:50. Bleh.
So, bitch about last night’s commute aside, I feel for the victims and families. I hope we get the real story on the jackass with the Cherokee. Is the driver of the Jeep really that much of a dumbfuck? A guy I work with who also rides the train is just being a dick and saying that the media is creating it’s own news here and that it was an accident. Whatever, dude. Tell that to the dead people’s families. What kind of an asshole tries to take a couple of hundred people with him when he tries to off his worthless self? (Besides people with an agenda that usually do their business by bomb…)
Fucker.
Why Southern Californians, WHY?!?! This is the 4th suicide-involved Metrolink accident (though this one was merely an attempt) that I can remember in the past 2, maybe 3 years. WTF? Do we not have enough bridges for you suicidal fuckheads to jump off of, you have to take out other people while you’re at it?!!!
Damnit, killing only yourself is one thing. Deliberately taking other people with you while you end your misery is one of the most unspeakable acts against humanity.
I don’t believe it was an accident as he’d slashed his wrists and stabbed himself in the chest prior to the impact. It also occurred away from the designated crossing point so it’s not like his vcehicle just died at an inconvenient place. Looks like it was to be a suicide but he chickened out.
I must say that I’m a bit amazed something so light as a Cherokee could cause a train to derail. Makes me wonder if there were contributing factors like a curve or worn railing for such an event to occur.
I thought the same thing about the lightness of an object causing a train to derail, but I’m telling you, after feeling the effects of a mere shopping cart, I am now under the impression that a train is nothing more than a glorified tin can barreling through humanity at a safety level roughly the equivalent of…naked skydiving, I suppose. That is, you will probably make it to the ground without injury, but all it takes is one tiny object in just the right spot to make you wish you’d worn kevlar that morning.
It’s been in the local news all day. The worthless pile of dog vomit parked his car on the tracks and then apparently lost his nerve, leaving a dozen innocent people to die in his place.
Probably not. Locomotives these days generally have flat plates at the front rather than the angled ‘cowcatchers’ of steam days, so vehicles struck on the tracks can sometimes roll under the front of the locomotive, lifting a wheel and thus causing the derailment.
A bad accident indeed, but the severity was increased by the fact that the derailing passenger cars struck a stopped Union Pacific freight locomotive on an adjacent track.
To be complete, the train that hit the Jeep was being pushed by a locamotive, not pulled, so it was actually a passenger car that hit the jeep.
I used to ride that line when I lived in Thousand Oaks, although a later one. Now I live less than two iles away from the crash site. I get chills thinking about it because on those commuter trains you are very oblivious to anything going around. Certainly folks were sleeping, reading the paper, chatting and then suddenly the nightmare.
Rail is still one of the safest modes of transport. Usually, a five hundred or thousand ton train will just push a motor vehicle aside like a toy. The danger is when things go underneath the train and lift the flanges of the wheels clear of the rail head. A semi truck may well not derail a train, but under the right conditions, a motorcycle might.
Obviously, this accident was made much worse by the subsequent collision with the second train. This would appear to be what broke the coupling between two of the Metrolink cars. One of the key elements in train design is strong couplers. Nineteenth century trains had a simple hook and a metal ring, and when a derailment occurred, carriages would scatter across the countryside like toys, and injuries were enormous. Designers soon learned that keeping a train in one piece after a derailment is vital to safety. It’ll still be a wild ride, but the front of the train will protect the rest of it, and the non-derailed cars will tend to keep the derailed ones closer to their original course, giving them more chance of avoiding lineside structures or drop-offs before coming to a halt.
Danger Ahead! - an interesting site on historical railway accidents, and their causes.
Actually, the southbound Ventura County Line Metrolink hit a northbound Burbank Airport Metrolink when it derailed, as well as hitting the freight engine.
I take the Metrolink downtown to get to school, though thankfully a much later one. I heard about the accident on a traffic report this morning, turned on the news, took one look at the footage and knew there’d be no rail traffic through there at all today (or for several days, probably). The Metrolink hotline said they were busing passengers from my usual station to Union Station, so I left early and headed for the station anyway. With the road closures and whatnot it took almost two hours (and I was late for class).
The footage I’ve seen is scary, scary shit. Metrolink cars are very large and quite sturdy, so it’s chilling seeing them crumpled up like huge tin cans. I also remember the noise the train makes when it goes over a shopping cart – I can’t even imagine what this accident must have been like, for the people on the trains as well as the people who live and work in the area.
The owner of the Jeep Cherokee deserves every single homicide charge.
On a side note – the CNN article on this mentions other recent train crashes at the end. In particular, it says “In June 2003, a runaway train crashed in Commerce, obliterating two houses and slightly injuring 13 people.” This is not quite right, although the linked story includes the vital missing detail: the runaway train crashed because it was intentionally derailed. In a residential area.
This train isn’t a wide-gage commerical, Amtrak-style passenger train. It’s a “light rail” system, similar to a subway train, like the Boston T or the CalTran SF Corridor train. There isn’t really much to these things once you work up from the chassis, and they shimmy like a belly dancer when you’re going around a sharp curve. It wouldn’t take much to derail one.
Stranger
What Yamirskoonir said. All morning I was thinking, “Why couldn’t he have just done himself in at home or thrown himself off a cliff instead?” I don’t normally think such thoughts, but I couldn’t help it today.
To the multiple homicide charges, I would add aggravated assault in regard to the 100+ people injured.
Question: Is there any kind of barrier that could be constructed to make it impossible for anyone to get their vehicle onto those tracks in the first place?
Are you certain about this? You made a comment about the Gold Line in another thread – the commuter trains that crashed this morning were Metrolinks. Metrolink cars are the size of Amtrak cars and run on the exact same tracks that Amtrak and the various freight trains use. I wouldn’t call the Metrolink light rail, and they’re not part of the Metro system that operates the Gold, Blue, Red, and Green lines.
My mistake. You are correct.
Stranger
I don’t think so, without some serious dollar cost behind the implementation.
I know that a few years back, a woman high on coke, decided she would “cross the tracks” at a well known spot in Ramsey, NJ where Ramsey Lumber is located just off Rt. 17. It’s well known because two streets basically end where the tracks are, and pedestrians routinely cross at that point, even though there is no pavement, sidewalk, or crossing of any kind.
Long story short, her Jeep Cherokee (her being the “Bergen County Bitch” that she was) got caught on the rails, and she passed out, only to be hit by an oncoming train. AFAIK, it never derailed, but it sure enough killed her.
There are plenty of properties on either side of the line with chain link fence. Besides the occasional hole in the fence, there’s plenty of ways that a vehicle can get up onto the tracks, even if you have to go a few yards down from a crossing or opening.
You can’t keep people from being stupid, unfortunately. . .
Tripler
Bring the cowcatchers back.
Several years ago, I saw a TV program about rail accidents and things. One segment was on the psychological effects on the engineers and crews of killing someone with their trains. The amount of guilt they felt was enormous, whether the deaths were because of an accident or a suicide. Many even left the job. It didn’t matter that the deaths were not their fault. I found the whole thing very interesting.
A couple of months later, my former next door neigbor committed suicide by train. The guy was a miserable asshole and a racist to boot. There was a freight train crossing a couple of blocks away from his house, and that’s where he did the deed. It didn’t surprise me that he picked such a shitty way to off himself. (Subequent investigation confirmed that it was definitely suicide.)
Not only did he involve the innocent engineer, but he also risked making the train derail. As others have said, it’s not likely that a car on the tracks will make a train derail–especially a freight train–but the whole thing is very unpredictable. Even if no people are hurt, A derailed freight train means enormous losses for whoever had goods on that train, and huge damages to the tracks and equipment. And even if there is no derailment, there will be damage to the tracks and equipment, major delays, etc. (And can you imagine the paperwork?) It’s just such a nasty thing to do.
But this California guy makes my former neighbor look positively considerate by comparison.
However, the car that hit the truck was not and engine but a passenger car which is considerably lighter than an engine.
In all honesty, I didn’t know before today that hitting an SUV could derail a train. I don’t doubt that it can (after reading about it), but–up till now–I never would have thought such a thing could happen. Kind of a sad thing to learn.
I’ve always wondered about what kind of person throws themselves in front of a train. It’s not the suicide itself that confuses me. It’s more what **Green Bean ** mentioned: why put the egineer and crew through that? I remember when I was studying in London that one of the tube stations was shut down because of “a person under a train” (no kidding–that’s the reason we were given). Later we were told it was a suicide. It just bothered me that someone would put another person through the kind of horror and guilt of having to kill them.
My heart goes out to all the victims, their families, and the crew of this train. What a horrible thing to go through.
I was pissed off and weirded out by this all day.
Weirded out because I’ve been riding commuter trains to work for over 20 years now and I have great empathy for folks riding to work suddenly finding themselves in Bad Situations.
I was also aboard an Amtrak about 15 years ago now that ran over a suicide on the tracks in Michigan. That wasn’t pleasent either. I’ll spare you the worst of the details and reduce the description to four words: “Extra Chunky Tomato Sauce”. Alright, eight words: “Now With Bone Bits”
This is the Pit, right?
What a fucking obnoxious, ignorant, stupid, fart-brained chunk of extra-decayed intestinal pus this shithead is – bad enough he wants to off himself, he’s a goddamned loser who can’t even do the job right. Stabs himself AND cuts his wrists? And this fucker is still alive? Meanwhile 10 dead and counting, and a couple hundred injured. I guess we should be happy he didn’t intend to hurt anyone else, huh? Imagine the carnage if he had been trying hard - or maybe that was the problem. If he’d been trying to take others with him he probably would have fucked that up and no one would have gotten hurt. He’s the sort of fuck-up that makes you think “rubber hoses” when you read/hear “police are interrogating the owner of the Jeep Cherokee” - and smile. What a loathesome piece of offal too low to be worth pissing on. Makes you fantacize about tying him to a railroad track with lengths of his own intestine.
:mad:
This is turning into a really fucked up, sucky week.