They will be checked, no question. I'm willing to bet that it's been checked long before now.

An article saying that the truck was inspected about two days before the incident:
http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201310140094

There was an interesting blurb in that article too:

Yikes!

Also, the railroad has cancelled the remaining trips for the year on this line:
http://wvmetronews.com/2013/10/14/futur ... -accident/

And another article with updates:
http://wvmetronews.com/2013/10/14/sever ... continues/

Y'all gotta remember that this-heah is Pocahontas County area yer dealin' wit'. They got dem Na-shee-nal Ray-dee-o Obserbatory dishes up theyah inna one o' dem hollers down the road a piece. They don't even got ray-dee-o up there. They used ta dee-liver the mail with carrier pigeons, but they kept eatin' 'em....

Okay, all kidding aside. if you can actually get a cell phone signal where the accident happened, I'll be amazed. Last time I was down that way, not too far from Cass and Green Bank, I was stopped at a general store topping up with gasoline (seriously), and some car with New Jersey plates pulled up, and an older woman got out and asked me (with Maryland tags), "Excuse me, but can you tell me how to get back to civilization?"

True story. I have a witness.

Mr. Mitchell's story reminded me of a corollary to it.

A railfanning friend of mine from Washington, DC, one who's normally into modern rail service and Pullman cars, made his first trip to Cass some years ago, and loved it. The funny thing was he said the closer he got to Cass, the more he felt like he was in a more civilized country!

Maybe that says something about life in Washington at the time!

I will give some first hand info on the accident. The truck was on a down hill grade. The railroad crossing is well marked with two signs indicating that there is a rail crossing ahead. The signal lights were also working. I talked to some of the people that knew the driver. He usually runs hard while driving. He had just dropped of his daughter and was delivering his last load. His son had a football game that evening and he probably wanted to be there. It is a shame that it ended in his death. We are lucky that the truck hit at the coupling. I have taken photos of the accident scene and the damage to the rail cars.

Sincerely
TrainCrew

Flashback to the Amtrak Chase wreck. Sixteen died, but the first car behind the motors was a deadhead Amcafe being held empty to fill at Philadelphia. That car was flattened in the wreck. It had fifty three seats. Shudder.

Thank goodness he had dropped her off. Losing one family member is enough of a tragedy.

Steve Hunter

I think bashing of the driver is unproductive at this point. He alone was at the controls of an 80,000 plus pound vehicle that struck a passenger train.

I think this should be used as a reason for all operations to check their emergency procedures. Maybe even drill with your local EMS people.

DGVR has had some bumps in the road thru the years, all minor. But they helped make us ready for something like this. (not like you could ever be 'Ready' for something like this) I would hate to think what it would be like going into this with out any exprince what so ever.

Ben True

DGVR

The science is in, hands free devices do not work. People still drive right into the thing they did not see, just, they have two hands on the wheel instead of one. The problem is they did not see it, because their attention was not on the driving environment. Your eye being aimed at a thing does not make your brain cognize it. Again, it's all about attention.

After reading the numerous NTSB reports on the subject, I started paying close attention to my attention. It was really quite astonishing how much my situational awareness is degraded by numerous distractions, and how a handsfree does not improve it. Try it yourself.

Hands free's actually make it worse because they lull you into a sense of false safety. That guy could have been *snap* out like a light because his attention was snapped away by a phone call or interaction with a device.

Man, how would it feel to look at the time of the accident, and realize it was that exact minute that you called him, and his reaching for his phone is probably what took his attention away. It would be like you killed him yourself.

I think we need to get over the idea that every death is a "tragedy." People die....in different ways every day. Tragic is when a Nobel laureate is killed by a random bullet from a gang's undisciplined drive-by. Tragic is when Sister Theresa is killed by a suicide bomber from the Taliban while treating children in an orphanage.

Like many people my age, I'm very familiar with friends and relatives dying....most by natural processes, some in battle, some in accidents, some by overt dumb actions or misfortune. I grieve for them all, but recognise it is all part of the unpalatable stew we call "life."

Rational empathy is fine...the rest is just grandstanding.

dave

It says more about the increasing divide and Balkanization between urban and rural America, if you ask me.

My serious suggestion for overcoming this social divide is for everyone in "flyover country" to have to trade livings with "Left Coasts/Rust Belt" folks for a minimum of four months. The only problem is, you'd have to leave enough of the "country folk" and "city slickers" in each environment that they are both true to life for the temporary occupants.....

Regarding "hands free" communication devices: One expert gave the "gold standard" for distracting conversations, even with hands-free apparatus: "Talking with your estranged wife's divorce lawyer". (I don't want to be within ten miles of that person.)

Regarding truck-train collisions: Back in 2011, some members of my wife's cousin's family in New Hampshire were riding the Downeaster that was involved with a refuse truck near the Maine-NH border. Here again, the only fatality was the truck driver.

This is reminscient of the accident on the South Shore with a coil truck, but the truck was crossing the road and the train hit it. A steel coil slammed down the aisle of the train. I think the engineer died and a few pasengers, missed the conductor.

Since that accident I havent heard issues about coil trucks, in fact I wonder if the steel company changed their delivery style to rail, hence the South Shore now has a fleet of steel coil cars.....the curioisty is too similar.

This would make a good time for the lumber company to rationale how they deliver.
The truck driver's story is an all to often story I hear about accidents like this someone trying to get where they gotta go.

Up until the moment of impact, I agree. "Which weighs more, a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?" As far as vehicle dynamics, stopping distance and the like, the mass of the vehicle is what matters, what it's made of is irrelevant.

However, after it hits the object, in my opinion, things change. A solid object such as a log or steel beam will do more damage than something like gravel or milk. The logs are a solid object, and transfer all that energy into the object they're striking. Liquids or granular objects can disperse on impact, spreading the energy, and reducing the impact at any one location.

Think of it this way. If you were to drop a log onto the ground from a height of 50 feet and then drop a log shaped water balloon onto the ground, with the same mass and speed, which would create a larger hole? As soon as the leading edge of the water hits the solid object, the water starts spreading out sideways and dispersing. The log, being one solid object, can't spread out and distribute the impact over a wider area.

Said another way, would you rather be hit with a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?

BobHarbison wrote;

"Said another way, would you rather be hit with a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?"

Exactly, it's called the "theory of inelastic collisions". Under this theory the object in the collision with less mass absorbs the majority of the energy dissipated in the collision. Yes, the mass of the train is larger than the mass of the truck/logs, but the truck/logs hit in a concentrated area (say 10 by 10 feet).

The logs are clearly "inelastic" and act as a battering ram. An equal mass of feathers, sand, milk, etc is "elastic" and much of the energy dissipates "sideways" and causes less damage. Of course a gasoline tanker hitting something causes less collision damage but the spraying gas is likely to be ignited from the sparks common in a collision.

Just like a mosquito hitting your windshield, it's elastic and the pebble that leaves a crack is inelastic. Its a simple density/stiffness relationship; feathers against steel = OK, wood logs against steel = not so OK. That's why hammer heads are made from dense stuff (steel, iron, brass, lead), ever hear of a hammer head made of feathers ?

Condolences to the families of all involved, lets wait until the investigation is complete to lay any blame (as if there is much point in that now).

Cheers, Kevin.