Passenger Trains > More about Amtrak's Silver Star vs. dump truck today...

More pictures and video from the Orlando Sentinel...a nasty wreck to be sure because of another inattentive truck driver who paid with his life. Sad for all the Amtrak crew aboard and the passengers. WESH TV, the Orlando NBC affiliate, has had excellent and accurate coverage of the incident as well. Now saying that the driver of the dump truck had a history of infractions...23 moving violations since 2001! Also, the truck was hauling ballast to be used for track work...probably for Sun Rail.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-fatal-train-crash-20121129,0,6201903.story



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/12 15:07 by DTrainshooter.

He got his final moving violation and it was a terminal violation.

Florida is very hard on drunk drivers. Why did they let this sort of person operate a truck?

My sympathies to all, regardless of who was at fault.

Appears first P42 diesel suffered heavy damage. Did the remaining cars leave the tracks? Course I am sure they have "flat spots" to deal with right (from the braking)?

From all the photos and video I've seen it appears that all of the train remained on the track. I've been trying to determine the number of the lead unit...everything I've seen is of the engineer's side which was heavily scorched.

And how many months will it take to repair the lead Amtrak locomotive?

And how many locomotives does this now make out of service due to collisions?

Who pays Amtrak for repairs -- the trucking company? the Florida Dept of Transportation?

The real question Amtrak should start looking into is who can they tap into to potentially lease diesels from. And it may be best to get commuter equipment that comes equipped with HEP.

Those agencies that bought former Amtrak F40 units would be ideal. NJT typically has extra diesels, but since Sandy hit, not sure of the health of their diesel fleet. Recall that they did buy four P40's from Amtrak for the ill-fated ACES train (i.e. Atlantic City Express Train). These however were likely stored at the NJT MMC yard that flooded.

chakk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> Who pays Amtrak for repairs -- the trucking
> company? the Florida Dept of Transportation?


The trucking Co.'s insurance provider should cover damages. How did this clown still have a licence with that many convictions? Or was he driving without one? As a trucker myself, I despise guys like this, they give us all a bad rep.

DTrainshooter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> From all the photos and video I've seen it appears
> that all of the train remained on the track. I've
> been trying to determine the number of the lead
> unit...everything I've seen is of the engineer's
> side which was heavily scorched.


AMTK 60

Maybe Amtrak should do the following
- Buy some old B-B road switchers from the Class-I's, wire for HEP and MU.
- Gut them and pour in concrete to weigh them down, like the Cabbages
- Reinforce nose with half-inch thick steel
- Place at head end of trains encountering stupid truck drives the most (Florida, Empire Builder in ND, and MT) so as to use as battering rams and sacrificial lambs when encountering these morons.

Are dump truck driver especially stupid? What is with the dump truck vs Amtrak thing?

Normanroger Wrote:
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> Are dump truck driver especially stupid? What is
> with the dump truck vs Amtrak thing?

Off topic but I remember when there was a sudden epidemic of pedestrians were getting flattened by inattentive drivers in San Francisco when carpetbaggers were swooping in the area for quick bucks about 5-6 years ago, at the same time cell phone usage was a growing trend. Then it suddenly stopped, around the time there was public outcry which led to laws against cell phone usage and vehicle operations. Remember the hands off hype, which was kind of a racket to make people buy more cell phone accesories? Oh, and the recession kicked the carpetbaggers out. :-)

There's something going on the trucking industry which has led to the increase in the truck vs. train incident in recent years. I don't think calling "dump truck drivers are stupid" addresses the root of the problem.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/12 09:14 by cchan006.

. How did this clown still have a licence
> with that many convictions? Or was he driving
> without one? As a trucker myself, I despise guys
> like this, they give us all a bad rep.

What can you as a trucker do to get these guys off the road? We need your help.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/12 14:12 by Ptolemy.

This method ONLY works if the Truck FOULS the PATH of the train FIRST and gets hit.
Very sadly This would NOT prevent the T-Bone crashes , Truck into SIDE of train,
which are the very WORST--WORST possible crashes to defend a train against.
This very scary type of crash happened to
Amtrak Train 5 on 6-24-11 Killing the train conductor in Ocala, Nevada (south of Lovelock, NV).
Amtrak Train 712 also was T-Boned on 10-2-12 in Duernsey, California (south of Hanford).
This is exactly why we must get these INSANE Clowns--Morons OFF THE ROAD NOW !!
We can NOT afford to kid around with this very serious issue of bad and stupid truck drivers.
---- Daniel

==================================================
joemvcnj Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Maybe Amtrak should do the following
> - Buy some old B-B road switchers from the
> Class-I's, wire for HEP and MU.
> - Gut them and pour in concrete to weigh them
> down, like the Cabbages
> - Reinforce nose with half-inch thick steel
> - Place at head end of trains encountering stupid
> truck drives the most (Florida, Empire Builder in
> ND, and MT) so as to use as battering rams and
> sacrificial lambs when encountering these morons.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/12 15:44 by daniel3197.

My Train Grandson who is a junior at Rutgers University at New Brunswick NJ called me about 300pm to say a northbound train just passed thru there with four Viewliner sleepers. Must have been the result of the Silver Star dump truck collision! I assume it was a very late 98 or at least its equipment!

Ptolemy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> . How did this clown still have a licence
> > with that many convictions? Or was he driving
> > without one? As a trucker myself, I despise
> guys
> > like this, they give us all a bad rep.
>
> What can you as a trucker do to get these guys off
> the road? We need your help.


Not much...as one of my dispatchers often says, ''you can't fix stupid''. I'd really like to know how a guy with that many violations has a licence or gets hired. Obviously his boss is an idiot too!

I did not state anything. It was a question.

DPKrause Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> chakk Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > Who pays Amtrak for repairs -- the trucking
> > company? the Florida Dept of Transportation?
>
>
> The trucking Co.'s insurance provider should cover
> damages.

Amtrak winds up paying, as the insurance provider for the trucking company will always claim it wasn't their fault. Takes years of legal action and investigation to get insurance to pay, if they ever do.