Terrible train accident in Galicia

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Ricardodaforce

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They are saying there are at least 30 fatalities. Some awful pictures on some of the news sites.
 
not good..
 
There was a bad TGV crash in France just a short while ago, it seems odd considering the generally good record, I wonder if hot weather is involved, or 'economising' due to budget cuts.
 
4wd said:
There was a bad TGV crash in France just a short while ago, it seems odd considering the generally good record, I wonder if hot weather is involved, or 'economising' due to budget cuts.
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I don't think weather could be a factor because it's not generally hot in Galicia. They temperatures they've been having recently have been a lot lower than what you've been having in the UK. There are unconfirmed reports that the train was taking the curve at 3 times the speed it should have. I am sure these things have a "black box" which will help in the investigation.
 
4wd said:
There was a bad TGV crash in France just a short while ago, it seems odd considering the generally good record, I wonder if hot weather is involved, or 'economising' due to budget cuts.
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Southwest trains have been delayed recently due to "extreme heat". I would guess the metal rails expand?
 
neil_g said:
Southwest trains have been delayed recently due to "extreme heat". I would guess the metal rails expand?
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As mentioned above, it's not hot there. This is Galicia not Andalucía. Looking at the forecast it only goes over 25C once over the next 2 weeks. Whatever the cause it's a terrible event for a city that's supposed to be celebrating today.
 
Number45 said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23442018



"Media reports", so take it with a grain (silo?) of salt but that doesn't sound good if true.
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According to El País, after the accident the driver was trapped but speaking with the station via his radio. He initially said they took the curve at 190, then 200, then changed his story back to 190. The limit being 80. He didn't give an explanation for the excess speed.
 
Awful reports....Just horrible.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
According to El País, after the accident the driver was trapped but speaking with the station via his radio. He initially said they took the curve at 190, then 200, then changed his story back to 190. The limit being 80. He didn't give an explanation for the excess speed.
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Wow. He survived then? That should mean we'll find out what happened at some point, at least.

Not that it will help those that are lost of course. :(
 
Number45 said:
Wow. He survived then? That should mean we'll find out what happened at some point, at least.

Not that it will help those that are lost of course. :(
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Apparantly so....

"Expresó que le dolía la espalda y las costillas y que no podía salir. “¡Somos humanos! ¡Somos humanos!”, repetía. “Espero que no haya muertos porque caerán sobre mi conciencia”."

He said he back and ribs were hurting him and that he couldn't get out. He was repeating "we're human we're human" and "I hope there aren't any deaths because they'll be on my conscience".
 
Whatever the reason for the crash it is very sad. A lot of lives lost and I would assume a lot of life changing injuries too. My heart goes out to the families/relatives who must be devastated.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
I don't think weather could be a factor because it's not generally hot in Galicia. They temperatures they've been having recently have been a lot lower than what you've been having in the UK. There are unconfirmed reports that the train was taking the curve at 3 times the speed it should have. I am sure these things have a "black box" which will help in the investigation.
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Chances are that even if excessive speed is the primary cause there will be other contributory factors that brought it about. Extremely unlikely that it is simply recklessness on the driver's part.
 
A terrible tragedy, and I suppose up to a point the "How and why" isn't important.

But, according to early reports, not only was the train travelling far too fast, the track itself hadn't been upgraded in that area - it was the original track, and when it was made a high speed route just 2 years ago they simply replaced the rails but left the sharp bend, because of the cost of buying the land needed to straighten that bend
 
Ricardodaforce said:
There's a video of the accident on informacion.es

Brutal.
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That is utterly horrendous.

What appears like an explosion is probably one of the carriages bouncing up and hitting the overhead power lines causing a flash.

Actually surprising that there were not more people killed.
 
80 dead now, including a Britain according to a friend of mine. I will check that last bit of info.
 
Just heard on the news that the train may have been running ~5 minutes late.

I wonder how routine it is to make up time by tip-e-toeing the rules regarding speed, and how often trains have sped around that bend without any problems in the past?
 
You imagine, or I do, that you'd be safe-ish on a train if it derailed at normal speeds. But at that speed, and viewing that footage, the passengers in the first carriages had zero hope. No time to react, nothing.

Very sad to see bodies covered alongside the wreck.
 
That's a ridiculous speed to attempt that corner

You assume that the most level headed people get jobs like train drivers, ships captains and airline pilots but that doesn't always seem to be the case

It's hard to imagine they don't get weeded out with the level of training they have to go through

Pilots that can't land, captains that can't sail and train drivers that can't drive a train round a bend

A couple of weeks ago a 44 tonne arctic turned over at the entrance to J21 M6 services

When that happens they should get their licence suspended, the only reason it can have turned over is an insecure load or going too fast round the roundabout

once you've got any job it's too easy to keep it
 
wack61 said:
That's a ridiculous speed to attempt that corner

You assume that the most level headed people get jobs like train drivers, ships captains and airline pilots but that doesn't always seem to be the case

It's hard to imagine they don't get weeded out with the level of training they have to go through

Pilots that can't land, captains that can't sail and train drivers that can't drive a train round a bend

A couple of weeks ago a 44 tonne arctic turned over at the entrance to J21 M6 services

When that happens they should get their licence suspended, the only reason it can have turned over is an insecure load or going too fast round the roundabout

once you've got any job it's too easy to keep it
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I'll be most surprised if he actually deliberately attempted that curve at such a speed. In fact, if he was alert to a 50mph curve ahead there is no way he would purposely go at 3 times that speed because his life was on the line - big time and he would have known that! There are inbuilt system to prevent dangerous overspeeding, but if they are unserviceable for any reason the train can proceed without them until it reaches a place where it can be taken out of service for repair.
Chances are that safety had become entirely down to driver skill and he had lost sight of where he was. Not remotely acceptable, but immensely hard to believe it was deliberate
 
bought an el pais today in Norwich -- that's another story... (Imagine person buying a foreign newspaper in uk.. therefore shop person feels the need to speak slow and loud, so I, "johnny foreigner" could understand.... ) had to really put on a Norfolk accent to mess with their head for the day.....

I can fully understand about 60% of it , and with a bit of thought, make out about 80% of it... and obviously from news footage entered the bend at warp factor 3.... I can only hope from the drivers point of view, that something failed therefore he could not slow down, otherwise, he is going to be spending the rest of his days in a cell...on about 80+ charges of manslaughter...

After watching it on TV and the interweb, I am frankly surprised that the casrate is not higher!
 
arclight said:
I'll be most surprised if he actually deliberately attempted that curve at such a speed.
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It looks that way to me, what other possible explanation could there be, modern train safety systems don't fail like that unless the driver overrides them


I read he'd been driving on straight track for 80km then went through a tunnel just before the curve
 
So the driver has been arrested for reckless driving this morning.
 
pepi1967 said:
So the driver has been arrested for reckless driving this morning.
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Can be reckless without wilfully carrying out an act. If he was not paying adequate attention that could be reckless.
It will all come out in the wash - probably.
 
This story from the Telegraph would seem to suggest a certain lack of judgement on the driver's part...
 
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