Hoboken Train Sped Up Before Crash, Emergency Brake Applied at Last Second, NTSB Says

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: ABC News

(HOBOKEN, N.J.) -- The train that crashed at the Hoboken, NJ station, killing one and injuring more than 100 last week, sped up in the seconds before crashing at the end of the track, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday.

The train's event recorder indicates that approximately 38 seconds before the crash, while the locomotive was traveling at about 8 mph, the throttle was increased from idle to the No. 4 position.

The speed reached 21 mph and the emergency brake was deployed less than a second before the crash -- too late to save the train from barreling over the bumping post.

Read more: http://wbt.com/hoboken-train-sped-up-before-crash-emergency-brake-applied-at-last-second-ntsb-says/

[LuckyLib]

1. Conductor dozed off and leaned against the throttle?

[eggplant]

3. The engineer drives, the conductor takes tickets (and is in charge).

[LisaM]

2. Question: do these trains only have one conductor?

I've noticed the new Sound Transit trains in Seattle - they've doubled the number of cars in some cases, so there are hundreds of passengers, and yet it still looks as if they only have one person driving it. I think there needs to be multiple drivers, though I don't know how it is in New Jersey.

[marlakay]

5. There can be thousands on a train

With one driver, most is computerized but there is manual override.

My hubby is retired from Bart in Sf. The commuter trains in early morning and after work have many cars and are packed. One driver.

But there is a office called central that runs it all.

[LisaM]

6. Ugh.

More drivers please!

[marlakay]

7. If the public knew how much money management

Of these government and state subway systems make, get away with, etc

Everytime they have contracts, management whines to local papers that its employees fault, they want too much, why prices on train go up...

Then after they get public riled up, get least they can with contract, after its over they give themselves huge raises!

[OxQQme]

4. Consider all the electronics involved

Computer controlled train with a manual override that's only there for emergency purposes.

I've been inside Portland's MAX operation and let me tell you it's a yuuge building.
Giant monitors, up high, all the way around the room that depict every inch of the rail system and the train's current postion.
Several dozen individual cubicles, each with three large monitors for a person to observe a particular event inside of the whole.
Each train's speed, location (by inches), how many passengers are on board.
Trains can be shut down from there by turning off the electricity in that segment.

Don your tinfoil hats and consider the possibilities......