Lot of people asking me about this train crash in Washington--here's what's on my mind... In 2005 there was a dreadful train crash in Amagasaki, Japan. A staggering 107 people died when a train derailed into an apartment building.
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I haven't heard any information yet about the cause of this accident in Washington, and it's possible that it was due to human error, which (as was the case in Amagasaki) can thwart the best of safety measures...
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...but that's kind of beside the point, which is that we have an unacceptable number of "background fatalities" happening every year on our railways which nobody bats an eye at. Huge, newsworthy crashes are bound to happen occasionally--but there's no excuse for the rest!
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I suppose we're just a bit desensitized by the incredible amount of carnage that goes down on our roads every year--what's a dozen dead in a train crash every year, compared to 40,000 dead in car crashes? But that's just an explanation--it is not an excuse!
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How many of fatalities are grade crossing related, versus derailment/collision w/train related (for both US & Japan)?
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none of these fatalities are grade crossing related
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if we include those, the numbers get WAY higher for USA (2-3 orders of magnitude) and I imagine the same for Japan
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:-( thats depressing to read..........clearly the U.S. approach with crashworthiness regs isn't working, vs. Japanese/European approach.
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Europe has a great signalling system, but U.S. refused to use it and instead we have buggy, inconsistent PTC with all its hiccups and faults
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What about the mileage? US much bigger so it seems we would go more miles.
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