reply to post by Whyhi
Well, I certainly agree with you. When I heard about the chicago one, I was able to pass it off as coincidence. But two, both with fatalities, is just
enough to raise the eyebrows a little.
And part of it definitely has to do with it being local and having my own personal baggage attached but there were a few red flags which I will argue
out myself here real quick.
1)One of the first reporters on the scene was kicked off the bridge overlooking the incident as soon as the FBI arrived and threatened them with
arrest and to have the news van towed.
----The normal part of that is that
A) You can barely spit in this area without running into an FBI agent in this area, there are probably at least 4 that live in my building.
B)Law Enforcement and EMS are very sensitive to privacy and would hate to have a family member seeing their loved one carted off the scene before they
even know they were involved in an acccident.
-----I will leave the abnormal parts cause any CTist will get that.
2)There are a bunch of different safeguards that should have kept this from happening, including but not limited to;
A)Central control and monitoring from the Metro headquarters that can stop trains
B)Driver control and over-rides that can stop trains.
C)Track controls that automatically register multiple trains on the track and disconnect power.
All very abnormal that all of those things, just that I know about, did not prevent this accident, let alone minimize it.
----However, the normal part recognizes that even though its serves the prestigious DC/Virginia/Maryland area, Metro has had regular and consistent
problems with, budget, personnel and safety issues, so any (or more likely) all of those things could have reasonably failed in my mind.
So I hope everyone was able to follow my crazy ramblings. Hopefully I saved both sides from picking apart either side of my arguements.
For me...I am not running for the hills waiting for the sky to fall...but I am definitely not quite ready to totally discount all of the stuff I have
read on this post the past...what...4? 5? 6 days now?
Sheesh....I need a drink.
