The news reports I have seen did not address the question of how it
happened.  I was under the impression that train locomotives are equipped
with a "dead man" control that brings the train to a halt if no one is
manning the controls.

Train service in the U.S. is quite different from that in the U.K. and
elsewhere in Europe.  There are certain well-traveled routes in the eastern
U.S., such as New York to Boston, where high-speed electric trains are in
use, but in most of the country the great distances and have made train
travel nearly non-existent.  The trains are diesel powered, and very slow.
Many passenger trains have a top speed of about 50 MPH.  The reason given
for these speeds is the condition of the tracks.  The majority of train
traffic is freight, and the tracks are not laid out with speed in mind, and
in many cases are not well maintained.

The most common type of train accident is collisions with automobiles.  Most
of these accidents result in injury only to the occupants of the auto.  We
seem to have fewer accidents with large loss of life than the U.K., but I
suspect that is attributable more to the smaller amount of passenger train
traffic than to better management.

-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2001 8:48 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: OT: Runaway train


I was watching the news here in the UK and saw clips of the train in the US
that travelled for around 70 miles without a driver. How did it start
without a driver? Did he forget to put the train into park and went for a
cup of coffee?? It seems a bit strange to me.

I dont know a great deal about safety of trains in the US but there have
been some very serious and fatal train crashes here in the UK - the latest
of which a car ended up travelling down a embankment before a bridge and
getting stuck on the line. The car was hit by a a train which was then hit
by another.

I just wondered if train safety(or lack of it) was a global problem and not
just specific to this country.

Thanks

Paul Thompson
Spark Response
www.sparkresponse.com



_____________________________________________________________________
This message has been checked for all known viruses by the
MessageLabs Virus Scanning Service. For further information visit
http://www.messagelabs.com/stats.asp

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *