J
01-05-2005, 11:14 PM
From time to time you'll see a television program where sober NTSB officials go about their business with maticulous care and precision, unswayed by politics or junk science. Now look into their letter to the railroad concerning the derailment and fire in the Howard Street Tunnel in Baltimore in July 2001. Here is part of what they say:
"Although the Safety Board could not identify convincing evidence to provide a probable cause for the accident, it found that the most likely scenario that could have resulted in the derailment involved an obstruction between a car wheel and the rail, in combination with changes in track geometry."
The report shamefully avoids discussing what the Board knows about train handling, the condition of the cars or of the track in the vicinity of the derailment. It is silent about sand being found on top of the draw bars ahead of the point of derailment.
The city of Baltimore would love to pin the blame on the railroad and this certainly doesn't hurt their case. Here's the letter from the NTSB website.
http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/2004/R04_13_14.pdf
"Although the Safety Board could not identify convincing evidence to provide a probable cause for the accident, it found that the most likely scenario that could have resulted in the derailment involved an obstruction between a car wheel and the rail, in combination with changes in track geometry."
The report shamefully avoids discussing what the Board knows about train handling, the condition of the cars or of the track in the vicinity of the derailment. It is silent about sand being found on top of the draw bars ahead of the point of derailment.
The city of Baltimore would love to pin the blame on the railroad and this certainly doesn't hurt their case. Here's the letter from the NTSB website.
http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/letters/2004/R04_13_14.pdf