At least 6 passengers killed in Amtrak crash near Olympia | Hacker News Reader

At least 6 passengers killed in Amtrak crash near Olympia

spokesman.com

Accident site: just west of the Mounts Rd, Old Nisqually exit on southbound I-5 [1] and streetview [2].

Some additional facts, without speculating about cause: the derailment occurred in a left-hand curve -- running timetable southbound, map westbound -- with the latter portion of the curve situated on a bridge above the southbound lanes of I-5. The curve is at the end of a nearly 9-mile stretch of (freshly upgraded) track with long straightaways and gentle curves. The upgraded section of track ends just around 150 yards from this curve.

In the aerial footage of the scene, you can see the lead car and the carriages following it flew off, tangent to the curve. The middle of the train bunched up on the bridge, and the rear half of the train fell inward into the curve.

[1] https://www.google.com/maps/place/47%C2%B004'55.2%22N+122%C2... [2] https://www.google.com/maps/@47.082065,-122.6750448,3a,60y,2...

"The Amtrak train making the first-ever run along a faster new route... when the train moving at more than 80 mph derailed..."

In other news, China will have over 18,000 miles of high-speed rail in 2 more years. http://www.atimes.com/article/china-eyes-30000-km-high-speed...

And speeds are approaching 220mph. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-09/21/content_322855...

Interesting - based on this article from Cato, the maximum speed of the train should have only been 79 mph, and not "over 80 mph". https://www.cato.org/blog/horrible-way-be-right . The article goes on to say that a local mayor had warned the project was unneeded and unsafe.

Chilling. The local mayor's warning just over a week ago: "Come back when there is that accident, and try to justify not putting in those safety enhancements, or you can go back now and advocate for the money to do it, because this project was never needed and endangers our citizens," Anderson said.

The industry doesn't want to change because there are too many people tied to jobs that feel they can't find new work in an evolved environment.

More details:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/train-derails-from...

can't imagine why it's so difficult to learn from our European friends on how to do transit well

As a country, we can land a rocket back on the launch pad, but we can't run a train faster than 80mph. Sad.

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