Passenger Trains > Amtrak involved in crash Thursday night

After pulling out of the Jack London station, Amtrak train #14,
The Coast Starlight, hit a Mercedes Benz near the Cost-Plus store
on the Oakland waterfront. No one was injured. The lady driving the
car saw the train coming and jumped out of the car leaving the
Mercedes on the tracks. No damage to the Mercedes, but considerable
cosmetic damage to the Amtrak engine. Not sure if there was any
structural damage to the equipment or tracks. Main line was fouled
for over 2 hours as police and fire department investigated the
crash. Subsequent Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin trains arriving
at Oakland had to switch to the freight tracks, pass the Jack London
station and head toward the coliseum where they "backed" into the
station switching to the Passenger tracks. Luckily it was after 11PM
(train #14 was late, so what else is new?) and there were only two
passenger trains ending their run at Oakland.

Very strange operation, indeed, but it all worked out and everyone was OK.
This could spawn a number of good Mercedes Benz commercials showing the
undamaged car and the damaged train engine.


Howard Dean
Alameda, CA

from some things i have seen about mercedes lately she is lucky the electronic door locks opened and she could get out....still amazing it had no damage!

I was wondering if that was #14 involved. I saw the video on the news Friday morning, but they didn't say which train and only showed the locomotive. I couldn't believe the damage to the front of the locomotive compared to almost no damage on the Mercedes!

Wait a minute, no damage to the Mercedes? I'm sorry, but that's not physically possible!

That's right it was a P42 that already had a bashed in nose. The newscaster on Ch2 news was amazed at how little damage there was to the car and with significant damage to the locomotive.

The damage to the nose was already there? That explains a lot!

Man, I'm kind of bummed that GM is eliminating the dent resistant plastic body panels on Saturns, but maybe I'll have to replace my Saturn SL2 with a Mercedes! ;)

silagi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That's right it was a P42 that already had a
> bashed in nose.


Lol, was it the 116? That one's run around with a bashed-in nose for a couple months now.

Shhhh. Let the lady pay for it.

The word "crash" is rather misleading.

The incident occurred at the north end of the street running in Oakland, where UP's two main tracks are embedded in First Street.

It's a fairly common occurrence for stupid people driving north on First Street to drive off the end of the pavement and then get hung up on one of the main lines, or to suddenly do something idiotic and pull out of the clearly marked traffic lanes and onto the tracks.

The Maximum Authorized Speed for passenger trains is 25, and for freight trains 15. Sometimes the trains can stop, other times not.

Usually whenever one of these incidents happens only one main track is blocked, and movements can still operate on the other track. If it's the Number Two Track that's blocked, southward Amtrak trains are routed via the Number One Track to CP Strong (about 1/2 mile south of the OKJ station), then back up from the Number One to the Number Two and on into the station.

If speed isonly 25 mph it strikes me funny that lady did have time to get out, but train did not have time to stop.
stopping a train at 25 mph only takes a few seconds and maybe 200 feet.

Nah, replace the Saturn with a P42!

Reminds me of the accident I was in about a year and a half ago. I stopped in my '91 Benz to allow some pedestrians to cross the street and was rear-ended by a lady going 30-35 mph. Very little damage (not even noticeable without really looking) to the rear of my car, but her Izuzu SUV's hood bent up in half shattering her windshield, one of her side view mirrors fell off, headlights shattered and the accident ruptured her SUV's coolant system and antifreeze poured out all over the street. There was severe structural damage to the front of her SUV and one of the wheel brackets bent and the thing had to be towed off on a flatbed towtruck. The police asked me if my vehicle had been involved in the crash!

For what it's worth, I have a 2002 Mercedes 230 Kompressor sport coupe (which they are no longer making BTW) It's a nifty little vroom vroom el cheapo Mercedes----it has a couple of major problems which is probably why they are no longer making this model---very bad BLIND spots and a back seat situation that is fine once you get into it, plenty of room and comfort, but incredible problems making your body contort into getting into the back seat. THey wanted to market it as the "entry level" to Yuppies with their first kid (fancy car seat situation for the back seat etc.)-------it didn't work. I bought the car for reasons that had nothing to do with their target market--it's a fun car (it replaced my 1990 BMW 325i convertible) but not for a family etc. etc. MY 1990 BMW is happily serving a soph at UC Irvine---I miss that car to this day. :-)
C.
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Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA