Train derails after hitting lowboy stuck on tracks in La.

Discussion in 'Trucking Accidents' started by 201, Oct 6, 2014.

  1. Grumppy

    Grumppy Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

    2,764
    8,848
    Dec 11, 2010
    West Monroe, La
    0
    gpsman Thanks this.
  2. Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

  3. lcfd15

    lcfd15 Medium Load Member

    678
    402
    Sep 17, 2014
    Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX
    0
    If you watch the video with the chief's interview. The Engine that was in front is in the background. The engineer's side and roof was completely smashed in. I can only imagine the damage that they personally took. I have never worked a train wreck, only HazMat on the road.... could not IMAGINE being the first on scene fire officer at a train wreck.... ####!
     
  4. cnsper

    cnsper Road Train Member

    5,869
    27,419
    Feb 28, 2014
    0
    Prayers for the train crew to have a speedy recovery. With them you can only hope the #### in your drawers will cushion the impact.

    Let's see if we can come up with ideas that would have gotten this guy unstuck before the train got there. It may save someone here some day.

    Maybe add air to the suspension?

    Or it looks to me like there is a single axle booster and I know if you add air to that it will pick up the back of the trailer. It sure drives funny but it does pick up the trailer.

    Hard to tell if it is a hydraulic RGN or not but some of those lift higher than the normal carrying height.

    Tell Billly Bob and Bubba Joe to get their trucks and pull you out. And if that don't work tell John Boy to get his tractor.
     
  5. passingthru69

    passingthru69 Road Train Member

    Hyd. neck. Was his first trip with that trl.. That I know for sure. Friend of mine works for that company.They had 8 heavy haul trks. now they only have 7...
     
  6. lcfd15

    lcfd15 Medium Load Member

    678
    402
    Sep 17, 2014
    Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX
    0
    I am sure their insurance company is loving them right about now as well!!!!!
     
  7. 201

    201 Road Train Member

    11,168
    22,654
    Apr 16, 2014
    high plains colorado
    0
    I wouldn't rip on the lady filming it, that must be quite a shock to see that. I wonder why she was filming that in the 1st place? Aren't those lowboy, oversize loads routed? Nice goin' yutz.
     
  8. Grumppy

    Grumppy Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

    2,764
    8,848
    Dec 11, 2010
    West Monroe, La
    0
    I was thinking basically the same thing. I was starting & stopping the video & that looks like a nice NEW crane on that trailer. Uh oh, somebody didn't get their new machine... and they had probably been waiting on it for a special project for a month because its been on back order.
    Point is, the ins has a truck, trailer & (probably) a new crane to replace & a train to repair... plus all the time, equipment & personnel to repair the track & get the 2 train engines & some cars back on the track. Plus loss of any material/cargo the train was hauling that was lost. All that is a chunk of money right there.

    [QUOTE="semi" retired;4271524]I wouldn't rip on the lady filming it, that must be quite a shock to see that. I wonder why she was filming that in the 1st place? Aren't those lowboy, oversize loads routed? Nice goin' yutz.[/QUOTE]
    Not being rude here but, she was probably recording it because, as you can see, its a small town & there wasn't much traffic or anything blocking her view. My point is, she seen a truck stopped/stuck on the track & the lights were flashing so she knew a train was coming. As well, she probably heard the train horn. My wife heard somewhere that the truck had been stuck there for quite a while, looking for some way to get pulled off the track.... of course while trying to get help there, as luck would have it, a train comes. She had probably been sitting there a couple of minutes & was held up due to the cross arms down. Therefore, she had plenty of time to see the truck was stopped or stuck, determine a train was coming & make a decision to get out her phone & record it.

    Again, I am not being rude here. Initially, I had the same thought. Why would she have her phone out recording? But, the amount of time it took all this to unfold, probably gave her enough time to make the decision to record it.
     
    gpsman, lcfd15 and "semi" retired Thank this.
  9. 201

    201 Road Train Member

    11,168
    22,654
    Apr 16, 2014
    high plains colorado
    0
    Hi Grumppy, I saw that too, that the folks must have realized something was going to happen. I always think of that too, the company and workers that made the crane, the customer who after a long wait, finally find out their their piece is on it's way, only to have a ding a ling like this hauling it. I don't mean to be too harsh on the driver, but if one is going to pull a lowboy, it's the same as pulling a 13'6" trailer. You aren't going to go under a 12' bridge with it (yet some do). Yeah, that claim is going to be in the millions. Quick way to have avoided that, would have been to disconnect the air ride leveling arm off the axle, pumped up the air bags on the tractor and backed off the tracks. Too late now.
     
  10. allisonisatranny

    allisonisatranny Light Load Member

    188
    131
    Oct 6, 2014
    0
    He could have called the emergency number on the tracks if he was there for awhile to alert the train to stop. According to the previous poster, he was there for awhile. *sigh*
     
  11. lcfd15

    lcfd15 Medium Load Member

    678
    402
    Sep 17, 2014
    Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX
    0
    As a first responder I can talk from a prospective that is sympathetic to the situation. I have my central dispatch, I call them every time we have an incident on CSX railroads here in our area. (even thought this was a NS train). Some times the message does NOT even get to the engineer that we are working on their rails for almost 15 minutes after my dispatch makes the calls! Crazy huh? It was also brought up that this town is a small town with emergency services that are not immediately available like bigger cities, so its not like your going to get 15 fire trucks, 10 ambulances, and a swat team as soon as you call 911. It will take time to get a response to the scene.

    As for filming, I rather this lady actually film it. Now, god for bid, this accident turns fatal, they will have the documentary to prove that it was no fault of the railroad crew, bystanders, emergency service personnel, etc etc.. This will also help the in the companies hitting up the insurance company for the millions of dollars it will take to clean up, replace all equipment, and get any environmental issues under control (normally a 5 year process depending on the chemical).

    As it sucks that there was a truck, trailer, train, crane, and multiple cars (including HazMat), there were also injuries. That is why we have insurance, is it not? You sit there and say "How come he never called to stop the train?" how do you know that nobody did prior to the video rolling? It is always easy to "arm chair quarterback" on this side of the video unless you actually had experience in their shoes.

    This is easily going to be a multi million dollar incident right off the bat for this trucking companies insurance. I know this from experience as an officer with my fire department and going through rail car specialist school for hazardous materials at the FRA site in Pueblo, CO. Just to get cranes out there to get these cars up righted is going to be one hell of a bill! Than you have the HazMat clean up (at least a couple hundred thousand for the amount of materials that the trains carry). Than you have track repair, road repair, utility repair (if any poles were taken down). It is going to be a long and drawn out process that this company is going to be paying for a looooong time! (well at least their insurance will).

    The first thing they are going to go after is the training! "If this was a new driver to this equipment did he get the proper training?" Than they are going to quote most CDL driver manuals about getting hung up at raised railroad crossings, and than BOOM, the trucker is at fault 100% and it sucks, but true. I am sure we will see this in big news media in the coming days.
     
  • Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.