Railroad investigator says its wrong to point a finger at train engineer

[Fishrrman]

http://amp.kiro7.com/news/south-sound-news/railroad-investigator-says-its-wrong-to-point-a-finger-at-train-engineer/668115816

Railroad investigator says its wrong to point a finger at train engineer
By: Amy Clancy
Dec 23, 2017

Since Amtrak Cascades passenger train 501 careened off the tracks south of Dupont Monday, questions have been directed at whether the engineer may have been at fault because the train was traveling nearly 50 miles per hour faster than it should have been.

Three men died in the derailment. Nearly 100 others were injured.

On Friday, a longtime railroad investigator told KIRO 7, people should not be so quick to judge.

“Anybody who points their finger at this engineer in this accident is making a very bad mistake,” John Hiatt said.

Hiatt is a former BNSF engineer who has been working as a railroad investigator with the Bremseth Law firm in Minnetonka, Minnesota, for the past 25-years. He lives in Puyallup, and has spent the four days since the deadly derailment speaking with multiple Amtrak and other railroad employees.

Earlier this week, NTSB Board Member Bella Dinh-Zarr revealed that crew members on the new route trained for two weeks prior to the run's launch on Monday.

Hiatt believes whatever training they received it wasn't enough. 

“They were hurrying,” he told KIRO 7. “They had this little, tiny window and they had this December 18th deadline. Deadlines can’t be the dictator of how you do things. Safety has to be.”

Based on what railroad employees have told him, Haitt said the engineer hit the curve at 78-miles an hour instead of 30 MPH because he most likely did not know there was a tight curve ahead. 

“They just didn’t know where they were at.”

“These guys were trained in darkness. All of them,” Hiatt said he was told.  “They couldn’t get availability to the track during the daytime, so that’s part of the factor.”

Another problem, according to Hiatt’s sources; too many engineers received training at once.  “I’ve heard six people were in the locomotive cab, which has three seats.”

More at URL above...

[Right_in_Virginia]

Based on what railroad employees have told him, Haitt said the engineer hit the curve at 78-miles an hour instead of 30 MPH because he most likely did not know there was a tight curve ahead. 

“They just didn’t know where they were at.”

“These guys were trained in darkness. All of them,” Hiatt said he was told.  “They couldn’t get availability to the track during the daytime, so that’s part of the factor.”

I don't understand this.  Wouldn't driving the train in daylight make it easier to "know where they were at"?

[truth_seeker]

Common sense and logic clearly indicates that 78 mph in a 30 mph zone is off the charts crazy and irresponsible.

I don't care if they trained in the dark or on Mars. Work backwards. Are there any places on the route, where curves at excessive speed could cause the train to derail?

If the answer to the above question is "yes," then you should know where they are in rider to drive the damn train !!

To me the driver killed 3 people and injured dozens, by negligence.

[Night Hides Not]

Common sense and logic clearly indicates that 78 mph in a 30 mph zone is off the charts crazy and irresponsible.

I don't care if they trained in the dark or on Mars. Work backwards. Are there any places on the route, where curves at excessive speed could cause the train to derail?

If the answer to the above question is "yes," then you should know where they are in rider to drive the damn train !!

To me the driver killed 3 people and injured dozens, by negligence.

In the Army that I served in 30+ years ago, the entire chain of command would have been fired.

I was in Air Defense Artillery. My battalion was air base defense, a piece of cake compared to Nike Hercules batteries which all had "special" weapons. I never had to worry about 15 minute alert status, nuclear surety inspections, etc. I heard the horror stories during our Friday night get togethers at Herr Barden's gasthaus in Loffelscheid. Herr Barden served the best jagerschnitzel in Germany.

During my two years in that area, one of my "extra duties" was Augmentation Reserve Force commander. We had 4 hours to assemble 40 men with all required equipment, and train them on the questions they would be asked by the evaluators, plus refreshers on infantry small unit tactics. Upon our arrival, every soldier was issued live ammo, and we were given our mission, usually terrorists stormed the weapons storage area, and barricaded themselves in one of the bunkers.

Thankfully, I had four years of infantry tactics in ROTC...don't laugh, we had one of the most active detachments in the country. My spring breaks were spent at Fort Lewis, WA, and we had monthly weekend training. I was in the middle of my class of 20: about a third earned Ranger tabs, over half (including me) earned jump wings. Of those that made it a career, several made full bird, one had two stars. It was a damn good class.

Sorry for going O/T, just wanted to lend my perspective.

ETA: of the 6-7 ARFs I commanded, not one soldier was ever injured, nor was a weapon discharged in error. Call it luck, if you want. I call it one of the highlights of my military career. LOL, several great stories emerged from those experiences, of course, they're only interesting to me.