Train Wreck

No, I'm not talking about the Democratic Party, though after Ted "the swimmer's" speech yesterday, the title of this post could accurately describe what's happening to the donkeys. I'm talking about the tragic three train wreck in Glendale that was caused by one loser who decided to off himself by parking his car on the tracks. Unfortunately for a lot of people, said loser changed his mind but didn't manage to get his car out of the way before it was hit by a quick moving Metrolink train jammed with commuters. The resulting crash means 11 people will never go home again, and many others will be maimed physically or emotionally for life.

Most train accidents involve only one train, though occasionally someone flips the wrong switch or misses a signal light and two of them are run together (such as what happened in Fullerton awhile back). To involve three different trains took a confluence of events that would be hard to plan if you wanted to do it on purpose.

The impact occurred in the front of a train which was being pushed by its engine, meaning a specially equipped passenger car was leading the way. On several occasions I've walked up to the front of a train like that and have watched the engineer working in a very small and exposed space. Although they are protected by bulletproof glass which would hopefully keep stray missiles from entering the cab at high speed, it is obvious that should a vehicle enter the track at the last minute, the engineer would be toast. There's just not enough train out in front of them to protect them.

I remember traveling south on the Amtrak between Oceanside and Solana Beach. In this stretch the trains are often traveling 70-90 MPH along crowded city streets and crossings. It's both exhilarating and scary as heck. If a car pulled in front of one of the trains flying through that area, the resulting wreck would not only derail the train, but would probably put the train and its riders right through several businesses. The destruction and death toll would make the Glendale crash pale in comparison.

Amtrak and Metrolink run trains with pusher engines as a cost and time saving technique. It takes time and money to pull the engine off, turn it around, and reconnect it to the other end of the train. With the engine out front both the crew and the passengers are safer, because the engines are a lot heavier than the passenger cars and much less likely to derail. Since these events are fairly rare, I doubt if there will be an effort to ensure that the engines are leading the way on all these trains.

Unfortunately, the Glendale wreck probably won't be the last one. Just a day after the crash, another loser in Irvine decided to try his hand at train wrecking. He decided to do himself in, but the police saw him on the tracks and scared him off. After a short chase they caught him. Good work by the Irvine Police who probably saved another big mess.

In a few weeks I'll be taking my family down to San Diego on the Amtrak to see The Midway aircraft carrier. We definately won't be sitting in the lead car, and let's hope that another loser hasn't chosen that day to make a statement.