One person died Jan. 31 when an Amtrak train carrying Republican lawmakers to an annual retreat collided with a truck at a railroad crossing and derailed near Crozet, Virginia. The White House has confirmed the train crash fatality. One person also was seriously injured. According to White…
In the wake of a deadly Amtrak passenger train derailment in Washington shortly before Christmas 2017, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that a long-mandated automated braking system would have prevented the deadly wreck. The agency has reached the same conclusion repeatedly since the Rail…
Many people consider school bus transportation to be extremely safe. After all, we watch every day as our most precious cargo hop up the school bus steps and drive off for the day. School buses share the road with other vehicles – passenger vehicles and…
In a recent announcement, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is calling for all passenger train engineers in the United States to be screened for sleep apnea. The agency also said that train engineers who have severe sleep apnea should not be allowed to operate those…
Imagine that you are looking to purchase a new automobile. You finally find the vehicle that meets all your requirements. As you are signing all the paperwork involved with that purchase, you discover there is a clause in the contract that states you are waiving…
A horrific school bus dragging accident in Plainfield, Massachusetts has claimed the life of a 9-year-old girl. The young child was killed as she attempted to get off the bus Friday afternoon at approximately 4 p.m. According to reports from the Massachusetts State Police, the…
Automation and budget-cutting have led many freight and passenger railroads across the United States to cut crew sizes. As a logical result of such staff reductions, many of the largest trains moving along the nation’s rails have only a single engineer in the locomotive—even those…
Railroad executives and, to a large extent, federal railroad safety regulators classify crashes between trains and cars or trucks at grade-level crossings as a form of trespassing. The basic assumption is that drivers could and should have stayed out of the path of the onrushing…
Nearly 40 percent of all train derailments in the United States result from broken rails or other track problems. Looking only at train crashes that occur outside of rail yards, the percentage of derailments that happen when switches fail to close, rocky ballast subsides or…
News of train derailments and accidents that result in massive oil-fueled fires and explosions have become almost routine. While few such railroad instances in the United States have led directly to losses of life, the risks for injuries and extensive damage to property, the environment…
