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Re: FRA may allow Euro trainsets in 2015; Article is very biased
Author: Margaret (SP fan)
Date: 11-02-2013 - 14:28
OPB:
I really appreciate what you wrote. Your
information is invaluable, and I eagerly look
forward to reading whatever you post. Thank
you. However: what you wrote about the 1998
German ICE crash was not accurate, according
to the Wipedia article HERE
You wrote that hundreds died.
Actually, 101 people died. That is very tragic, but
is far from the hundreds you said died.
You next wrote:
"Its first major accident, was a derailment caused
by a broken wheel flange, and resulted in most of
the train sideswiping an overpass abutment at approx
180kph. Well over one hundred died, as the cars all
disintegrated into piles of scrap metal!"
What actually happened was that a tire broke on the
3rd axle of the first car, and impaled the car. It came
up between two seats occupied by a mother and her son --
but did not hurt either of them!
That broken tire then caught on a switch, and pulled it off
the ties, and lifted it up, which pushed the 3rd car’s rear
truck upward, which threw the first of 2 switches, shoving
that 3rd car onto a siding, which then threw the car into
the piers supporting a nearby 300-ton overpass, which
began to collapse.
The 4th car then derailed, and rolled onto its side, crushing
2 track workers. When the couplers broke, the emergency
brakes were applied, and the first 3 cars (mostly undamaged)
stopped.
The train was actually going 200 kph (120 mph). The very
high death toll was caused when the 4th car slammed into
massive overpass, and the rest of the train jack-knifed, and
rammed the collapsed overpass at 120 mph, and ended up
occupying the space of only one car. The rear of the 4th car
and the entire 5th car were crushed -- and the 5th car was
crushed so much it ended up being only 6 inches high!
That crash was not in any way survivable by anyone in the
5th through 12th cars (car 13 was a power car), even had
those cars been built like tanks. This is because the deceleration
from 120 mph to zero mph when those cars slammed into the
collapsed overpass created forces that no human body could withstand.
So, in this case, even had that train been constructed to American
passenger rail car standards, none of the 99 people on that train
who died would have survived.
None of what I have written is meant in any way to mean that I
do not support what you have said about how essential it is to
build passenger rail cars as strongly as possible, so as to minimize
injuries and deaths. I just wanted to point out that doing so would
not have saved any of the 99 passengers who perished in that terrible
1998 crash.
Margaret
I really appreciate what you wrote. Your
information is invaluable, and I eagerly look
forward to reading whatever you post. Thank
you. However: what you wrote about the 1998
German ICE crash was not accurate, according
to the Wipedia article HERE
You wrote that hundreds died.
Actually, 101 people died. That is very tragic, but
is far from the hundreds you said died.
You next wrote:
"Its first major accident, was a derailment caused
by a broken wheel flange, and resulted in most of
the train sideswiping an overpass abutment at approx
180kph. Well over one hundred died, as the cars all
disintegrated into piles of scrap metal!"
What actually happened was that a tire broke on the
3rd axle of the first car, and impaled the car. It came
up between two seats occupied by a mother and her son --
but did not hurt either of them!
That broken tire then caught on a switch, and pulled it off
the ties, and lifted it up, which pushed the 3rd car’s rear
truck upward, which threw the first of 2 switches, shoving
that 3rd car onto a siding, which then threw the car into
the piers supporting a nearby 300-ton overpass, which
began to collapse.
The 4th car then derailed, and rolled onto its side, crushing
2 track workers. When the couplers broke, the emergency
brakes were applied, and the first 3 cars (mostly undamaged)
stopped.
The train was actually going 200 kph (120 mph). The very
high death toll was caused when the 4th car slammed into
massive overpass, and the rest of the train jack-knifed, and
rammed the collapsed overpass at 120 mph, and ended up
occupying the space of only one car. The rear of the 4th car
and the entire 5th car were crushed -- and the 5th car was
crushed so much it ended up being only 6 inches high!
That crash was not in any way survivable by anyone in the
5th through 12th cars (car 13 was a power car), even had
those cars been built like tanks. This is because the deceleration
from 120 mph to zero mph when those cars slammed into the
collapsed overpass created forces that no human body could withstand.
So, in this case, even had that train been constructed to American
passenger rail car standards, none of the 99 people on that train
who died would have survived.
None of what I have written is meant in any way to mean that I
do not support what you have said about how essential it is to
build passenger rail cars as strongly as possible, so as to minimize
injuries and deaths. I just wanted to point out that doing so would
not have saved any of the 99 passengers who perished in that terrible
1998 crash.
Margaret
