Spain train crash: Galicia derailment kills 78

[MisterWhiskers]

*drops jaw* Holy freaking moly... my condolences to all the families involved and to the country of Spain. This guy may be in huge trouble.

Yeah, he is screwed. I think he might have been tired or something. Then, again, everyone makes mistakes.

 

[Yukon]

Horrific.

I can't even comprehend what the people involved must be going through.

I think he might have been tired or something. Then, again, everyone makes mistakes.

Mistakes. This was not a mistake. 120kph over the speed limit is not a mistake. From what I gather, was he not boasting about the speed the train was going on Facebook? He has ruined many lives. Far more than what the death toll is.

Horrific.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

confused me slighty until I googled it. A simple language difference.

Over here a conductor checks tickets and interacts with the travelling public and has nothing to do with with operation of a train. More often than not they don't even go in the drivers cab.

Similar to I think how what we call a driver you guys call an engineer. In my post when I state engineer I'm referring to someone who has gone to uni to gain a degree in what ever engineering field that's relevant. In this case mechanical and electrical.

It's a language gap, I'll stick to conductor since it is appropriate for the area I come from. And yes we call them engineers. But we distinguish a true engineer (which is what I am, Aerospace Engineer), from a train engineer. In other words engineers here are called the same thing over there, they just have more than one meaning.

 

[Shaun]

Sorry I jumped on you like that, I think I forgot you were experienced with trains.

No problems mate, I didn't take offense to it. 👍
I still hope I'm wrong and it's found to be a technical fault that can be rectified.
Either way it's sad that there was such a large loss of life.

Your offtopic story is almost a movie scenario! So all these years those trains driven while suffering from those problems? I don't know what would happen here... We are pretty hard on safety, or we would like to think. They were German you said.. I remember an ICE train losing it's axles, you should Google that if you haven't heard of it. Happened ~10 years ago. National Geographic did a docu on it.

As bad as it is it simply comes down to money.
Our drivers are very strict on safety and wont bat an eyelid at cancelling a train if there are safety concerns with it. As it stands they now have a workaround if the scenario pops up. It's not a fix but at least they can overcome not having any control.

I'll check out the ICE incident when I get the chance. 👍

It's a language gap, I'll stick to conductor since it is appropriate for the area I come from. And yes we call them engineers. But we distinguish a true engineer (which is what I am, Aerospace Engineer), from a train engineer. In other words engineers here are called the same thing over there, they just have more than one meaning.

I thought that was the case but thanks for clearing it up anyway. 👍

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

I thought that was the case but thanks for clearing it up anyway. 👍

So since the guy is supposedly in police custody is it safe to say the main focus is on him or is this just precaution?

 

[Dennisch]

The driver has been charged for reckless manslaughter.

 

[Mikeybc]

Were the trains brakes applied moments before the crash ? Wasn't the engineer on the phone telling someone they were going to crash ? How long distance and time wise does it take got a loaded passenger train of that size to slow from 200 km/h to 100 or 80 km/h in an emergency braking situation ?

Hopefully the black box data can shed more light on this tragedy...my condolences for everyone involved.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Where has it been said that he was going 200km/h that day?

 

[dxm8975]

What a terrific and blood-curdling accident for all the people who underwent the catastrophe on the day of religious pilgrimage by a stroke of bad luck... I pay all of my sincere condolences to all the victim of the accident and all the families who lost their precious ones.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

An horrific, terrible event, the aftermath looked like something out of a Hollywood disaster film....

 

[Carlos]

Guys, this just happened:

http://jalopnik.com/head-on-train-crash-reported-in-switzerland-updating-951571136

2 trains, head on.... Sick situation.

 

[Slash]

Oh my god. What is going on lately?

 

[Johnnypenso]

Oh my god. What is going on lately?

Guys, this just happened:

http://jalopnik.com/head-on-train-crash-reported-in-switzerland-updating-951571136

2 trains, head on.... Sick situation.

Billions of people travel every day. Accidents and negligence are bound to happen. The train crash in Switzerland would not likely have even made the news in North America but for an item way down the list if not for the recent incident in Quebec and Spain. Nothing mysterious going on..

 

[Northstar]

Every time I watch the video of the crash I cringe, it just looks too extreme to be something not made by special effects.

R.I.P. to those who have passed.

Nothing mysterious going on..

^This.

There have been 19 train crashes this year.

(guessing that list only has more serious accidents and not minor derailments)

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Billions of people travel every day. Accidents and negligence are bound to happen. The train crash in Switzerland would not likely have even made the news in North America but for an item way down the list if not for the recent incident in Quebec and Spain. Nothing mysterious going on..

I agree with this, just last month or two a bunch of sink holes have been happening and CNN felt it was necessary to start covering them after one happened. Same thing goes with Train accidents, it keeps them from finding real big big stories of importance.