Hazmat derailment near Philadelphia - Printable Version

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Re: Hazmat derailment near Philadelphia - ngauger - 12-02-2012

OK - all you railroaders:


Am I hearing this correctly???????
  • the bridge controls the red signals at each approach to the bridge
  • the signal registers green when the bridge is successfully closed and latched
  • the creek is tidal water allowing the possibility of debris to potentially float into and foul the bridge closing
  • the signal was red indicating the possibility of a "not" completely closed bridge
  • The signal would not "clear" to green
  • The engineer contacted dispatch who can not control the signal and dispatch gave the engineer the "go ahead" to go across the bridge

This raises the question of "Common sense"... if the signal would not clear, wouldn't that alone say that something was fundamentally wrong with the closing???

Could the Dispatcher be held responsible along with the Engineer for the derailment???

Re: Hazmat derailment near Philadelphia - railohio - 12-02-2012

Standard operating procedure. If the dispatcher can't get the signal to line up the crew can be talked by after a visual inspection.

Re: Hazmat derailment near Philadelphia - ngauger - 12-02-2012

railohio Wrote:Standard operating procedure. If the dispatcher can't get the signal to line up the crew can be talked by after a visual inspection.

OK - I thought that was the reason.

But wow - What a result. If the signal is saying something is wrong and it turns out the signal is correct (something "was" wrong with the bridge) that's a shame for the crew. I'm glad it wasn't the engines that went into the creek.

Re: Hazmat derailment near Philadelphia - Green_Elite_Cab - 12-04-2012

As I understood it, this bridge has been problematic for quite some time. Maybe the "visual inspection" was not as thorough as usual, given that the bridge probably frequently had problems.

It almost sounds like a case of "Oh, don't worry, it always does that!" that went wrong.

Re: Hazmat derailment near Philadelphia - ngauger - 12-04-2012

Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:As I understood it, this bridge has been problematic for quite some time. Maybe the "visual inspection" was not as thorough as usual, given that the bridge probably frequently had problems.

It almost sounds like a case of "Oh, don't worry, it always does that!" that went wrong.
Yeah - I'm thinking that too.... That's why i made the comment (and asked the question) about "Dispatch" giving the "go ahead".. it seems that the bridge was just called in as "Not closing" the day before and also numerous issues as much as 2 years in the past.... The last issue was the rails were 4" off center... Eek

Their story is that the bridge was repaired by Conrail right after the problem that was reported the day before... But after a train went over the same day as the derailment, it was showing an "error" as if it still was not functioning exactly as it should. the next trian that went over the bridge, was the derailed one Sad Sad Sad

Something else to ponder: Didn't it derail in the early morning?? It was "DARK!!!! - maybe the conductor missed something in the dark.....

Re: Hazmat derailment near Philadelphia - ngauger - 02-19-2013

Update:

Settlement offer in N.J. derailment prohibits future lawsuits over health problems

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