Someone raised the idea of these crashes being a result of remote control takeovers (if that is what we saw), and cite the coincidence of the untimely death of Barnaby Jack as awfully suspicious. I hadn't really thought of it, but there have been a bevy of them lately.
"Train derails in La., about 100 homes evacuated" Associated Press, August 06, 2013
LAWTELL, La. — A train carrying hazardous materials derailed in Louisiana and two railcars leaked chemicals, forcing the evacuation of about 100 homes, officials said. One man went to the hospital complaining of eye irritation.
More than 20 cars of the Union Pacific train went off the tracks about 3:30 p.m. Sunday near Lawtell, which is about 60 miles west of Baton Rouge. Company spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza said one of the railcars was leaking sodium hydroxide, which can cause injuries or even death if it is inhaled or touches the skin. The other was leaking lube oil.
Master State Trooper Daniel Moreau said the leaks were contained and the amounts were so small that air pollution detectors have not picked up anything, but homes within about one mile of the derailment were evacuated as a precaution.
Governor Bobby Jindal flew into St. Landry Parish and declared a state of emergency. ‘‘Anytime you have chemicals leaking into the environment, that’s a serious issue,’’ Jindal said. ‘‘Nobody knows the extent of the damage. We’ll get that in the next 24 hours.’’
Another damaged car was carrying vinyl chloride, Espinoza said, but it was not leaking. Vinyl chloride is extremely flammable.
There were two people on the train: an engineer and a conductor. They were not hurt....
The railroad company does not know what caused the derailment. Espinoza said the railroad ties were renewed in 2011 and the track was inspected about three hours before the accident....
WTF? Who sabotaged the train in Louisiana?
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Related: Spain Train Crash
"Driver in Spanish train disaster says he exceeded speed" by Silvia Taulés and Dan Bilefsky | New York Times, August 01, 2013
BARCELONA — The driver in the train crash last week in northwestern Spain that killed 79 people told prosecutors that he had recklessly exceeded the speed limit and would have to deal with the guilt of what happened for the rest of his life, according to a statement he made to prosecutors published Wednesday in the Spanish newspaper El País....
Francisco José Garzón Amo, 52, a veteran driver who had bragged about a penchant for speed in a Facebook posting that has since been deleted, was arrested in his hospital room last week.
He was charged with multiple counts of reckless homicide and was released without bail on Sunday.
His whereabouts since his release have not been publicized.
Minutes after the accident, his face bloodied from the crash, he phoned Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, and said, “I want to die,” according to police records of the call.
Divorced and with no children, Garzón had recently moved in with his ailing mother near Santiago de Compostela.
His passport has been taken away, and he is required to register his presence with a court in Santiago de Compostela every week.
Last year, Garzón had posted a photograph of a locomotive speedometer needle stuck at 124 miles per hour on Facebook, boasting that the reading “has not been tampered with.”
According to a statement Tuesday by the Superior Court of Galicia, the region where the accident happened, Garzón received a telephone call from an official of Renfe and was “reading a map or some kind of paper document” at the time of the crash.
The police are also investigating why another driver was present in the cabin at the time of the crash.
What? And he didn't do or say anything?
Investigators have retrieved two data recorders, one from the front of the wreck and the other from the back.
The Superior Court of Galicia used the contents of the data recorders to determine that Garzón had activated the brakes just “seconds before the crash.”
The accident was Spain’s worst train crash since 1972, when 86 people were killed in the southwest of the country. While national outrage has focused on Garzón, the largest union of railway workers has insisted that the surveillance system tracking the train’s speed was partly to blame since it was prone to human error.
Most high-speed lines that are part of the European rail traffic system are covered by a GPS-based surveillance network that constantly monitors trains’ speed and automatically brakes them at speed limits.
WTF?!?! So WHAT HAPPENED?
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Also see: Spain's Other Crash
Last I've seen of them; otherwise, I would post them.
"Canada toughens train rules after deadly disaster" by Rob Gillies | Associated Press, July 24, 2013
TORONTO — Canadian transportation authorities banned one-man crews for trains with dangerous goods Tuesday, responding to calls for tougher regulations after an oil train derailment in Quebec killed 47 people.
Transport Canada also said trains with dangerous goods will not be allowed to be left unattended on a main track. Hand brakes must be applied to trains left one hour or more.
The July 6 tragedy occurred when a runaway train carrying 72 carloads of crude derailed, hurtled down an incline, and slammed into downtown Lac-Megantic. Several train cars exploded and 40 buildings were leveled. The unattended Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway train had been parked overnight on a rail line before it came loose.
‘‘The disaster brought to light several industry practices which have caused some concern,’’ Gerard McDonald, assistant deputy minister of safety and security at Transport Canada, said. ‘‘Given that and with an abundance of precaution, we thought it would be prudent to implement these measures now.’’
Canada’s Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the accident, had asked for changes in regulations governing rail traffic.
Transport Canada also is giving rail operators five days to ensure that nobody without authorization can enter the cab of unattended locomotives on a main track or sidings.
???????
So WHO SABOTAGED the TRAIN in Canada?
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Related: Slow Saturday Special: Canadian Pile Up
So many omissions and obfuscations make it hard to make sense of the crashes.
