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U gotta be kiddingme man, your gonna pass judgement on someone else from 20 plus yrs ago. I come froma family of rail roaders I spent countless days running trains back in the day. Besides this was right around the time I was leaving for the Army. I fought in combat ,, my son is in the Army. His unit is getting ready to deploy again to the middle east and you are run your pile hole brother? Unless you were there dont pass judgment. I bet you are one of those ex high school science club kids who was the teachers pet and never grew up. Listen next time you wanna get out your crystal ball go step on someone else. Now go be a child and tatletale on me. O yea brother you forgot to tell everyone here you are the number one rail fan and modeler
In all my years of reporting incidents, in all the lists of alphabet soups of state and Federal agencies that have to be notified in case of accidents, in all the reams of forms and papers and reports, I never once came across "Call all the local railfans" as step in the process.
So basically if you don't know about it, then its being covered up. Kinda broad definition of "cover up" doncha think?
Put it this way. Is there a FRA/NTSB report/recommendation on the accident available to the public? Did the incident make the news?
If you answered no to any of the above questions, then it can be considered to be "covered up" since the information is not publicly available. I'm not even talking about railfans anymore; I'm talking about the general public.
I'm trying not to get political here, but you seem to be getting your bureaucratic panties in a bunch.
The bottom line is, we're all human, and if someone is hurt, I will go see if they are ok. It's human instinct regardless of whether you say otherwise.
If I had been the CR officials I would have told you to get off the property too. They already have a very expensive machine destroyed and an investigation to find out who violated a main track authority, that's about as serious a situation as you can get. They don't need civilians wandering around an accident scene and possibly getting hurt too.
That's a serious rules violation and doubt any railroad official would be in a good mood.
Just because they told somebody to get off the property doesn't mean they are trying to "cover up" anything.
Reported ... this has gone beyond civil and is completely unnecessary, in my opinion. Why don't we all just take a moment to step back and take a deep breath. I don't think anyone is trying to directly insult anyone else...
Its just a small derailment here. Not a real life occurance of Unstoppable. A train jumped off the tracks. Dragged several feet and a few cars tipped over on thier sides. The public wouldnt be all bent out of shape over a few hopper cars being turned over on thier sides without injuries, or any hazardous chemicals spilt. Any sort of a strange cover up or whatever is way out of left field. I would be willing to bet this accident is considered fairly minor to CSX considering the circumstances. There is no need for any sort of hostility in this post.
OK folks, can we get back to our normal, friendly discussion. I have taken actions on this and a related thread. This one needs to get back on course or it will have to be locked too... Thanks for your understanding.
Why would they want to cover it up? If you were trespassing, its simple, you may be arrested. Its their property and its up to them what they have done
So if you get into a car accident on the way to work, and it does not make the news, does that mean it was covered up? Is there suppose to be some federal report on your car accident? I just don't get what you are driving at? Just because there was no report, does not mean there is a cover up. Half of my derailments were in yard limits, does not mean there is a report out. No cover ups or anything like that.
usually something serious... like when injury or death occurs. Or when I put 6 ethanol cars on the ground, 2 on their sides last month. Stuff like that is serious. FRA reports are generally not open to public when there is a minor incident or a near miss.
If anything there is a in house report that the engineer and conductor fills out. Lord knows I filled enough of them out over the years! I work with a guy who has his pre-filled out like the RR and name and ect.
usually something serious... like when injury or death occurs. Or when I put 6 ethanol cars on the ground, 2 on their sides last month. Stuff like that is serious. FRA reports are generally not open to public when there is a minor incident or a near miss.
Reports have to be made to the NTSB if the accident meets any of several thresholds. Some of they are injuries and deaths, release of hazmat and monetary damage. From the tape the first two don't appear to be applicable. I seriously doubt that there was enough damage to the cars to make the monetary damage requirements to make it NTSB reportable.
It is FRA reportable. The FRA reports are available, since they are Federal documents, if you want to slog through them.
More likely the reports will be aggregated up into summary statistics on derailments and cause.
In any case the incident can be reported 100% in compliance with all Federal and State requirements and it still not make the news. The classic example was that a grain train near Los Angeles derailed about 20 cars upright and in line on an industrial lead. From a railroad standpoint a "minor" derailment. That made the national news for two days in a row. On the other hand another railroad had a rear end collision on the main track resulting in two fatalities at the same times as the grain train derailment. That would be a MAJOR derailment. The major one with the fatalities didn't make the news. The minor one did. The major one didn't happen in a major news area with good video coverage. The minor one did. What made the news was which one had good video, not which one was most important or most serious.
So what makes the news and what the "public" deems important doesn't really have any bearing on how something is reported and its reporting requirements.
An incident can have met every required statutory reporting requirement and can be as much of a permanent public record as the incident requires, and still not make the evening news.
Well thats why they have company's like Hulcher out there, they specialize in derailment cleanups and know what they are doing. Its just job security for those guys. LOL As for rerailing minor derailments, I have helped on that side in the past both on the ground and in the engine, it can be a long all day affair or 30 minutes. Then the track guys have to to repair the track.
Seems odd that they wouldn't treat every accident the same level. There may not have been a serious injury or hazmat incident but the conditions could result in one in the future.
So what makes the news and what the "public" deems important doesn't really have any bearing on how something is reported and its reporting requirements.
An incident can have met every required statutory reporting requirement and can be as much of a permanent public record as the incident requires, and still not make the evening news.
Like this summer, a VIA special lounge car (of great historic value)was destroyed by a CN locomotive running light that plowed it on the the side, because the via crew forgot to realign a crossover at a station, fortunatly, the passenger had left the train about 30 minute before. Never made it to the news
Like this summer, a VIA special lounge car (of great historic value)was destroyed by a CN locomotive running light that plowed it on the the side, because the via crew forgot to realign a crossover at a station, fortunatly, the passenger had left the train about 30 minute before. Never made it to the news
The accident in Jasper this summer? Sure that was reported in the news, but it wasn't a major accident and no one was hurt or killed so you never saw it on national TV.
