English
‘Rush to judgment’ in deadly LA rail crash?
Translate this Page to following Languages: (Works every 5 minutes)
LOS ANGELES – In a surprisingly swift assessment, the operators of the commuter train involved in the head-on crash that killed at least 25 people blamed its engineer for the horrific accident.
However, a National Transportation Safety Board member cautioned that it was too early to establish the cause of Friday’s accident. Others, too, questioned the timing of the operator’s move to affix culpability.
Rescuers were still sifting through the twisted wreckage Saturday when Metrolink announced — 19 hours after the crash — that its preliminary investigation determined the engineer failed to heed a red signal light, leading to the collision with a Union Pacific freight train.
The engineer was among the dead, the NTSB said. His name has not been released. A total of 135 people were injured.
A visibly distraught Metrolink spokeswoman, Denise Tyrrell, said the company was stepping ahead of the NTSB in suggesting a cause of the accident because “we want to have an honest dialogue with our community.” She said internal investigators had reviewed dispatcher recordings and operation of the trackside signal system.
Part of the railroad’s safety system involves a series of signals that tell engineers whether the path ahead is clear. According to Metrolink, the engineer missed a stop signal shortly before the accident site — the last of three that would have warned another train was ahead on a single stretch of track. In that area, trains going both ways share track that winds through a series of narrow tunnels.
Metrolink’s assertion that engineer error caused the accident drew some criticism.
Los Angeles County Supervisor and Metrolink board member Don Knabe said it’s premature to blame the engineer.
“There could always be a technical malfunction where … there was a green light both ways,” he said.
Ray Garcia, a Metrolink conductor until 2006 who now works for Amtrak, said initial evidence could be misleading, as in the case of a central computer inaccurately showing that a signal was red.
“It is a rush to judgment,” he said. “It’s just way too early in the game to point the finger.”
Source:Agencies. We provide the latest news and YOU decide:
(All posts are from independent writers. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by parsnewz.com.)
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
Hollywood should apologize to Iran for “insults and accusations against the Iranian nation,” a top aide to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a visiting Hollywood delegation Sunday.
Oscar-nominated “American Beauty” star Annette Bening was among the members of the Academy of
Germany’s foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday he hoped to work closely together with his US counterpart Hillary Clinton on Middle East peace, the Iranian nuclear issue and climate change.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday pledged to work together
Zimbabwe’s opposition says a power-sharing deal is in jeopardy after President Robert Mugabe allocated key ministries to his ZANU-PF party.
A Zimbabwean government notice said Saturday that Mr. Mugabe gave control of the defense, home affairs and finance ministries to ZANU-PF.
The
In his first interview with an Arab television station, United States President Barack Obama Monday told Al Arabiya that Americans are not the enemy of the Muslim world and said Israel and the Palestinians should resume peace negotiations.
“My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy,” Obama told
Feeds