The major local news story of the day is a horrific crash involving a motor vehicle and a northbound Metro-North commuter train. The driver of the vehicle had apparently gotten stuck at one of the few railroad crossings on the Metro-North Harlem line.
In my neck of the woods, the railroad right-of-way is situated in a low area, and all of the transverse roads are on overpasses, a condition which . The particular railroad crossing is in a less-traveled area that had an uptick in traffic due to a detour. At any rate, six people have lost their lives, and railroad service in the region will be disrupted for a long time.
Kudos go to engineer Steven Smalls, who pulled several passengers out of the train and is recuperating in hospital. This poor, brave man could not have stopped the train in time to avoid the crash... even though he's blameless, I imagine this horror will haunt him for years to come. Nobody could have done better in the circumstances into which he was thrown.
We heard about it on the news over here. Terrible tragedy for all concerned. There are accidents on these types of crossings every year here resulting in calls to do away with them.
ReplyDeleteI remember something about engineer guilt syndrome (don't think they used that phrase, but you get the idea) possibly after a similar horror here.
ReplyDeleteTrains won't stop on a hundred, let alone the proverbial dime.
Far more of these train-car collisions happen than I knew.
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We heard about it on the news over here
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't surprise me, NY is a major media market and the train was packed with upper middle-class passengers, which makes it a big deal.
Trains won't stop on a hundred, let alone the proverbial dime.
The figure I heard in this instance was approximately 900 feet.
Far more of these train-car collisions happen than I knew.
Even more common are cases in which pedestrians, typically undocumented Latin American immigrants, get killed by trains, but those don't make the international news.