TRAIN CRASHES AND DERAILMENTS IN THE 21ST CENTURY!

TRAIN CRASHES AND DERAILMENTS IN THE 21^ST CENTURY!

(Reuters, David Sheppard, Jeffrey Jones, Rory Johnston)

(CNBC, James Burgess, Oilprice.com, Green Bay Press Gazette)

(Dave Kolpack, Japan Times, Tokyo Times, NTSB, Frazer Chronicle)

The southeast North Dakota town of Casselton, about 2,400 residents, narrowly escaped a tragedy when a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded on Monday, December 30, 2013. Luckily nobody was killed or even injured…..but it got me to wondering, what’s the deal with train accidents, and how many are there a year not only in America, but the world,  the short time that I spend researching, and the information that I got thunderstruck me

I never would have thought that rail service in the United States would be as accident prone as it apparently is. Now remember we’re talking about a behemoth vehicle with the power of thousands of horses that can be more than 5,000 feet in length, and carry thousands of ton of freight, solid as well as liquid. There are usually not hair-pin curves, and speed should never be a factor…..although sometimes it is. And with little exception human error should never need to be factored into a train wreck incident…..but sometimes it is.

The reason I say that speed, hair-pin curves and human error shouldn’t be a factor in train wreaks is because, no matter the power or length, trains travel on fixed steel tracks, and it seems to me that if properly maintained, they should last fifty or a hundred years…..minimum.

The operation of a freight train, or for that matter a passenger train, should be routine…..it would seem to me. Of course I’ve never operated a train, ridden only a handful, and don’t understand the finer points of the industry…..but I’m ready, willing and able to learn.

First you gotta be over 21, (I qualify) and you need a load full of experience which comes from hours of practice, and then there’s the different types of trains, freight, passenger, or hazardous materials. There are computer trains as well in various cities that help reduce the amount of traffic on their roads.

There’s the usual background check, (I’d pass that…..I think) and show that they are citizens of the United States (I’d also pass that requirement). Of course there’s the extensive and complete annual health examination…..(oh, oh, I’d need to circumvent this requirement somehow) have really good eyesight, (I used to umpire baseball games) and be able to hear a pin drop in a roomful of people, which I can do.

You have to understand the English language both in the written and verbal forms, however, according to the information that I’m reading on this subject there are many different types of crew members on a train, so maybe they should understand, read and write the English language as well. It also talks about the train engineer being in charge…..so maybe he should be bi-lingual, (which I wouldn’t be qualified for) hell I have enough trouble with the English language.

The train engineer’s job is tough, takes loads of training and education, but doesn’t require a formal education, and pays a starting wage of around $61,000 annually. Attention to detail is by far the biggest part of a train engineer’s job…..and communication skills are also vital to the success of being a train operator.

Of course we read about train accidents several times a year, usually ones that involve multiple deaths and double digit injuries. But after a little research for this blog I was flabbergasted at the numbers and the amount of deaths and injuries.

2013 WORLD-WIDE TRAIN DISASTERS

According to the information that I read for this posting, there were 53 recorded world-wide train accidents that took the lives of at least 247 people and injured well over a thousand commuters and rail employees. However either commuting, or as an employee, these weren’t the only people injured, trains crashed into parked train cars, hit bridge supports, depots and even a row of toilets.

The worst of the disasters in terms of deaths occurred on July 6, 2013 in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, Canada where 72 freight cars containing crude oil that runs away while unattended. Several cars explode resulting in 47 confirmed deaths. Over 30 buildings in the town centre, roughly half of the downtown area is destroyed.

The Lac Megantic disaster and the facts surrounding it seem a bit strange to me, here’s a train that Is 4,701 feet in length, weighing 10,287 long ton, which is 2,200 pounds, or a total weight of more than 2.2 million pounds, and all on its own it moves, gaining enough speed to become a run-away, strange indeed. Later in this post there might be some interesting info regarding this accident!

In Egypt, the Badrshin railway accident claimed 29 lives and left 230 injured as the train derailed at Giza and collided with a parked freight train. The 12-carriage train was carrying more than 1,300 Egyptian soldiers, and according to reports had to stop several times during the journey to fix apparent technical problems. The same stretch of railroad was the site of a head-on collision that took 40 lives in 1992.

Of course there are unrecorded train accidents…..like 2012 when more than 12,000 train accidents were reported, and that’s in the United States only. Of course there weren’t casualties or even injuries, but nonetheless they were fender benders.

World-wide the numbers of train accidents is astronomical, in excess of a million each and every year with hundreds of deaths and probably hundreds of thousands of injuries. There isn’t a data-base or web-site that catalogs these numbers in total, just the worst of them.

European countries rely on rail service much more then the United States, rail travel is almost the norm over there. Believe it or not the Middle East also uses rail service more than the U.S. and therefore is used to more injuries and deaths resulting from rail companies.

CASSELTON, NORTH DAKOTA AND LAC-MEGANTIC DERAILMENTS

I really can’t wrap my mind around a disaster like what happened in Casselton, or in Lac-Megantic, Canada. I drove a truck professionally off and on for more than forty years, I’ve seen the most horrific accidents that I believe can be witnessed. But in every instance there was a plausible and obvious reason for what happened. Speed, incorrectly loaded trailer, and driver error, I swear that 99% of all semi-trailer accidents were solved right at the scene.

But train accidents, to me are a completely different breed of cat, speed does play a role in some train mishaps, but it seems collusions and derailments are the far greater causes of train disasters. And that’s the part that I can’t figure out.

Every train, every rail stretch…..and more are controlled by computer read-outs that let engineers and rail trackers understand where every train is, and how that train is operating. You simply can’t lose a mile long freight train filled God only knows what kind of cargo.

There is one interesting sidelight to this post…..both the accidents, Casselton, North Dakota, and the one last summer in Canada, Lac Megantic, were carrying crude oil, making both a threat to other forms of transportation that carry petroleum products, namely the Enbridge and TransCanada pipelines.

LIKE A VINTAGE MOVIE…..THIS COULD BE

II remember an old Humphrey Bogart movie where he drove a milk truck for one company who was just starting out, and the established did everything to drive the upstart company down including shootings, accidents, and of course intimidation.

Could the same thing be going on in the oil fields of the Dakota’s and Canada, would you be surprised, would I, well hell no, stranger things have happened in the world of business. I do know this, crude tar sand pipelines are going to be worth $60 or $70 billion dollars, and will employ thousands of people with well paying jobs.

Liquid freight cars hauled by locomotives belching diesel exhaust employ hundreds, the roads are already basically there, and it won’t cost $60 or $70 billion dollars for the rail service. Now I ask you, which way would you want to go if you were looking to corner the transportation market?

HAVE A NICE DAY!