It was reported that he was instructing a new engineer, and thus, possibly standing, behind him at the point of impact and derailment. Then, if that were the case, he was probably thrown around pretty badly, when that car spun around. It also appears that other engineer was not as severely injured, and was likely in his seat, and thus, possibly somewhat better protected from that kind of G force.

I told one of the media flacks I know, that if I were advising Keith Millhouse or some of the other ML Board Members bleating their praise of the Rotem cars, that they'd probably be better off to withhold any comments on the performance of the Rotem cars until after the investigation. But, you know politicians......they just can't seem to shut up.

The severe train separation and spin out generally are something one doesn't like to see in such accidents, and while the Rotem and even the Bombardier car appear to have held up well structurally (based on observed outside integrity), how the death and injuries were produced has yet to be analyzed. So I agree, it is pretty damn stupid to jump to any such conclusion about the supposedly "superior" performance of the Rotem cars, too prematurely.

But maybe, the real despicable act is how we have decided not to fund the modernization of our transportation infrastructure. Compounded by how we appear to have failed to spend almost any of the scarce local portion of the voter approved "High Speed" rail bond monies on almost any grade separations, anywhere.

We seem to have almost systematically underfunded much needed improvements for capacity and safety on our most heavily used intercity and commuter corridors, putting tens of thousands of people at risk, everyday. While the State of California continues to pour billions into the CHSRA for a line from nowhere to nowhere. Now that is truly despicable.........