The Latest on Amtrak crash: Third victim identified

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

7 p.m.

A Wells Fargo senior vice president is one of the seven people killed in Tuesday night's Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia.

A company spokeswoman confirmed the news Wednesday.

"It is with great sadness that Wells Fargo confirms that Abid Gilani, a valued member of our Commercial Real Estate division, has passed away," she said. "Our hearts go out to all those impacted by this tragedy."

MORE at link.



Emergency personnel walk near the scene of a deadly train wreck, Wednesday, May 13, 2015, in Philadelphia. An Amtrak train headed to New York City derailed and crashed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150513/us--amtrak_crash-the_latest-30bdd5735c.html

[randys1]

1. Any politician voting against infrastructure is guilty of these deaths.

Any American voting for those politicians, ALSO guilty.

[loooneranger]

3. How does infrastructure spending

prevent the driver going 106 mph in a 50 mph zone? These kinds of reactions are what cause people to ignore us when we want to fund something. Too much of the public tunes out what we say about spending needs because of the meme "democrats solution is always more $$$" There is ZERO evidence this tragedy had anything to do with spending, or that it would have been solved by more spending.

[NaturalHigh]

8. You beat me to it.

[wordpix]

9. Rachel had a segment on this last night - infrastructure DID play a role

A Congressional act mandating rail technology/equipmt that can override conductor mistakes and automatically slow trains to speed limits is already passed. Unfortunately, Congress gave rail execs 7 yrs. to put this equipment in place. Time runs out at the end of this year, and they're dragging their feet. Rachel reported that here and there along that rail corridor, the technology is already in place but not in Philly.

[randys1]

10. Thanks, most of the people who will demand you explain this to them wont care

as it just wont matter to them.

Hating our government is a disease that many seem to have.

[FSogol]

11. Wrap your "thinking" cap around this: Improving the infrastructure of a modern rail line would

include updating the signals and controls. A modern train system could have stopped the f'ing train before that curve if it knew the train was traveling at that speed.

So, cram the idiotic RW talking points.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Congress needs to fund the PTCs

that they required be installed by law. The tracks at Frankford Junction where this occurred, doesn't have the relay units on the poles.

[loooneranger]

4. The PTC's are funded

The delay is in installation. In March, the Senate Commerce Committee voted to extend the deadline for implementing PTC until at least 2020

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Not according to Congressman Brady ((D) PA-01)

here in Philadelphia (who was on Tweety's show this evening). There was not enough funding to get all of the units in place by the 2015 deadline in addition to the push to move the deadline. A Senate committee voting on something does not make it law. The law is to have the units on all the trains and along the train routes, by the end of this year.

What was shocking to me though, was that Brady was actually appearing somewhere as he rarely goes on the various political shows yet is head of the city Democratic Party.

[loooneranger]

6. According to the GAO report that led to the extension

it wasn't a funding problem, it was difficulty with installation and integration of the system. It is a massive undertaking that requires changes to the trains and the rail system. It isn't a matter of just plugging in a new doohicky and upgrading software.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. The extension is not law

The issue of the complexity is definitely a factor - which was just noted this evening by the SEPTA Chief Saftey officer on Chris Hayes' show. I.e., because of the different train companies sharing the tracks (regional lines, Amtrak, and freight lines - all with different types of vehicles and communications capabilities), it would definitely be a massive undertaking nationwide - which would require more money to implement by the date of the current law (i.e., to find a strategy to handle this in the short term, although apparently most tracks do have the capability - it just wasn't implemented on that portion of track here in Philadelphia).

Again, the "extension" is NOT law. It is still a bill in the Senate. This is what Brady was saying that Democrats want to fight - having that bill become law - although if it did, the President would surely veto it and it is questionable, given what happened yesterday, that they could override.