tags: timeline 2013, dozing driver, transport operator error, Train Accidents, Attacks and Sabotage * ,
2013 NYC Metro North Bronx Train Derailment On December 1, 2013, a Metro-North Railroad passenger train derailed near the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx, killing 4 people and injuring 63 others.A freight train had derailed on the other side of the same station four months earlier.The NTSB found the train was going 82 miles per hour as it entered a 30-mph curve. Driver William Rockefeller 20-year veteran of the MTA and has clean disciplinary record was first heard to have said that the brakes did not work. Later the driver told first responders "he began to daze, thinking about nothing in particular and the train began to derail". He did not apply brakes until it was already derailing. Neighbor Tracy Pool, said Rockefeller is an avid motorcyclist who "likes like to live on the edge" but was always within speed with his trains.
Reference:
December 2013 Spuyten Duyvil derailment On December 1, 2013, a Metro-North Railroad passenger train derailed near Spuyten Duyvil station in the New York City borough of the Bronx, killing 4 people and injuring 63 others..Updates
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/04/us/new-york-train-crash/booted the rail union from its investigation into the weekend's deadly train derailment for violating confidentiality rules....after a union representative told CNN that the train engineer apparently "was nodding off and caught himself too late" before the accident.
Anthony Bottalico, the union representative, told CNN that engineer William Rockefeller Jr. recognizes his responsibility in the incident."I think most people are leaning towards human error," Bottalico said.
Rockefeller's lawyer, Jeffrey Chartier, characterized what happened as "highway hypnosis." He said his client had had a full night's sleep before the crash, and had no disciplinary record..."If he was dead, dead asleep, his hands would have come off the controls and ... some of the 'dead man' stuff would have come into play," said Harrod, referring to "dead man" mechanisms that automatically stop trains when the engineer is incapacitated. "But if it was kind of that twilight where you're just there and still kind of gently holding onto to things.. on unpaid status..."He is out of service. This is an unpaid status," said Daniels, adding that Rockefeller is presumed innocent until disciplinary procedures are completed.
12/4/2013
| Detroit Free Press | - |
The engineer at the helm of Sunday's horrifying derailment in New York City is distraught over the tragedy but was hoping to provide a second interview Tuesday to National Transportation Safety Board investigators, a union leader said.
Local media were reporting Tuesday that investigators believe Rockefeller may have been distracted or possibly asleep when the train careened into a turn far too fast to remain on the tracks.
The New York Post, citing sources close to the investigation, reports that Rockefeller told investigators he had zoned out as the train roared into the curve and was jolted back to reality when a warning whistle blew.
“He was just somehow inattentive,” and as soon as he realized what was happening, he jammed on the brakes, one source told the Post.
Earl Weener, with the NTSB, said at a news conference Monday that preliminary data from the train’s recording devices showed its throttle went to idle just six seconds before the crash, and that maximum braking occurred only five seconds before the train derailed.
...Rockefeller has told officials the brakes did not respond when he applied them as the train approached the curve, the New York Daily News reports.
Russell Quimby, who spent 22 years as a rail-safety investigator for the NTSB, told The Journal News the issues likely “revolve around human performance, distraction fatigue, that sort of thing,” and that it was “highly, highly improbable” that the brakes had failed.
“If you’re having trouble braking, you would know before the point of no return,
...“If you were driving a car at that speed and killed somebody, it would be negligent homicide -- no question,” Faxon said.
The engineer operating a commuter train that derailed in New York City Sunday, killing four, told investigators that he had "zoned out" and was "falling asleep" as the train headed into a curve well at more than double the posted speed limit, according to reports.
The commuter train that crashed in the Bronx on Sunday was going about 82 miles per hour as it entered a 30-mph curve, NTSB member Earl Weener said Monday.
NTSB analyzing data recorders to determine cause of deadly NYC ...
www.foxnews.com/.../federal-authorities-probe-cause-of-new-york-city-t...
1 day ago - NTSB recovers data recorder from NYC train derailment ... had tried to hit the brakes going into the Spuyten Duyvil bend, but they didn't work.
- The operator of a train involved in a fatal derailment in New York told first responders that "he began to daze, thinking about nothing in particular" and the train began to derail, a law enforcement source told CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues
The source also said that William Rockefeller is quoted in law enforcement statements as telling first responders that he applied the emergency brakes as the train derailed.
A second law enforcement official told CBS News that Rockefeller did not say he was sleeping or dozed off.
comment: Twenty years of being on the afternoon shift without incident. Then you're placed on the early shift, waking before dawn to run a 5am train. After a couple of weeks of not getting enough sleep, your body takes over. Despite your best efforts, the mind starts to micro-sleep. You're not drunk, distracted or texting, but your mind turns off for seconds at a time. You can blink and lose a few seconds or half a minute. You blink again and you're at the curve. Of course the brakes don't work, because the train is already derailing
12/3/2013
| Fox News | - |
NEW YORK - The National Transportation Safety Board says it is analyzing data recorders taken from a commuter train that derailed in New York City Sunday morning to determine whether excessive speed, mechanical problems or human error played a role ...
Twenty four hours after a Metro-North train accident in New York City there were still many unanswered questions. The derailment was the first fatal crash in the commuter railroad’s 30 year history. Four passengers died and more than 60 others were injured. Like many passengers, Joel Zaritsky had just dozed off as the train entered the sharp turn. "You could hear an unbelievable screeching noise as it occurred,” he said. “It went to the ...
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