BNSF head-on collision in Panhandle, TX

[MassArt Images]

A head-on collision just occurred in Texas. If I am not mistaken wasn't BNSF involved in the last one too?

Why are these still happening in this day and age even without PTC? Was this line not controlled by CTC? Maybe someone in the industry can shed some light on this.

[jdirelan87]

Why do head-ons still happens in automobiles even though there are signs and signals to govern their movement? Signal doesn't do much if you sleep through it or get distracted and miss it. Fact of life, although PTC is to fix this, so they say.

[MassArt Images]

Originally Posted by jdirelan87

Why do head-ons still happens in automobiles even though there are signs and signals to govern their movement?.

I would say that there are a lot more "idiots" behind the wheel of a car. Running a locomotive is a profession.

You brought up a good point about falling asleep. If the Conductor can't be a reliable extra set of eyes then have the "having two man crews improves safety" argument becomes moot.

[jdirelan87]

Originally Posted by MassArt Images

I would say that there are a lot more "idiots" behind the wheel of a car. Running a locomotive is a profession.

You brought up a good point about falling asleep. If the Conductor can't be a reliable extra set of eyes then have the "having two man crews improves safety" argument becomes moot.

Pilots receive years of training but planes still crash, mariners receive years of training but ships still sink. Perhaps being a professional mitigates risk to a degree, but in the end the law of averages will win. Accidents are an unavoidable part of any profession.

[miningcamper1]

Originally Posted by MassArt Images

You brought up a good point about falling asleep. If the Conductor can't be a reliable extra set of eyes then have the "having two man crews improves safety" argument becomes moot.

I accumulated a number of slides over the years of left-side crew sleeping, reading, making rude hand gestures, etc. These will either be photoshopped or just remain in the Logan files.

[troy12n]

Originally Posted by jdirelan87

Pilots receive years of training but planes still crash, mariners receive years of training but ships still sink. Perhaps being a professional mitigates risk to a degree, but in the end the law of averages will win. Accidents are an unavoidable part of any profession.

Let's be real here. Planes crash, but honestly it's not very often. To compare the number of plane crashes is misleading.

Plus, truth be know, pilots can fall asleep with their planes on autopilot and no one would know or care. No signals to run, no other planes to run into (realistically), no crossings to blow for, etc

Looked at some of the video, and it appeared to be tangent track for miles and miles, so to me looks pretty clear what happened on the part of one or both crews.

Crew fatigue has been an issue since the 1800's. 16 hour service days until the mid 70's, no restrictions on crew calls. Trains still crashed. Probably MORE often, and with more disastrous results because passenger trains were more a thing.

Railroading is a dangerous profession, and the crews are paid handsomely for it. It's part of the job.

[JimThias]

Originally Posted by troy12n

Let's be real here. Planes crash, but honestly it's not very often. To compare the number of plane crashes is misleading.

And plane crashes are almost always due to equipment malfunction, even when flown by professionals.

[miningcamper1]

Originally Posted by MassArt Images

A head-on collision just occurred in Texas. If I am not mistaken wasn't BNSF involved in the last one too?

Might be this one (1:59). The video shows the fault petty clearly.

[troy12n]

Originally Posted by miningcamper1

Might be this one (1:59). The video shows the fault petty clearly.

That one was several years ago, The train with the camera was supposed to take the siding, the train holding the main never stopped at the control point, although it was obviously they were not asleep at the time, as they were trying to stop and you saw the engineer bail