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| Re: How Railroad Could Have Avoided / Ameliorated Fiery Crash (1338167) | |||
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Re: How Railroad Could Have Avoided / Ameliorated Fiery Crash |
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Posted by Stephen Bauman on Thu Feb 5 17:27:44 2015, in response to How Railroad Could Have Avoided / Ameliorated Fiery Crash, posted by SLRT on Thu Feb 5 09:14:04 2015. MN may have ameliorated the crash had its coach been more fire retardant. On the face, the fire appears to be similar to 9/11. The jet fuel that started the fire was consumed rather quickly. It was the contents of the buildings that kept it going to the point that the buildings collapsed.Similarly, the 20 or 40 gallons in the gas tank should have been consumed rather quickly. I suspect that interior fittings kept the fire going. It will be interesting to see what the NTSB report turns up. Westchester DOT and NYSDOT could have avoided the crash had they properly designed the traffic signal at Commerce St and the Taconic. Here's the scenario, based on sketchy initial reports. The driver proceeded while the gates and lights indicated it was safe to proceed. However, the driver ignored the VTL which permits drivers to proceed only when there is room for them to completely get across the tracks. There is a traffic signal regulating the Commerce St & TSP intersection. It is 73 feet from the tracks. The standard operating procedure should be that this signal should be preempted to insure that no cars can be stuck on the tracks when a train is approaching. The sketchy initial reports indicate that the SUV driver was stuck in traffic, while the train was approaching. Otherwise, she would not have been stuck on the tracks when the gate came down. It's fairly common to have a parallel RR and roadway in close proximity. There's a similar configuration in Queens between the Lower Montauk Branch and Rust St/56th Rd. There are stop signs on Rust/56th at the intersections of Maspeth Ave and 49th Streets. Rust/56th is the major traffic street but the stop signs are there. Their purpose is to guarantee that no car/truck is stuck on the Montauk Branch waiting for a gap to proceed onto or across Rust/56th. |
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