1 killed in 6-vehicle crash on I-95 in East Haven, CT

This is getting really old with all these wrecks where a truck plows into stopped traffic.

 

Exactly. A far too common occurrence.

 

How about a truck plows into a bus full of workers that ran a light, spinning it and hitting it twice before the flames start, killing the driver but not his student...http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Florida-authorities-say-4-dead-24-injured-in-8338292.php

It's not exactly the same, but when I was a train engineer my feeling was that I got paid to sit on the front end of something I couldn't stop. Crews die when a truck stops over their crossing (esp logs or fuel), or they come over a hill and the track is gone, no way they're not going to hit whatever it is, they will swing through the ball for another mile anyway.

With a truck there's a shorter stopping distance and not as much pressure to keep going when conditions suck. Apparently they aren't teaching drivers not to drive beyond their headlight beam.

Although sometimes the driver of the car leaves it on the road and tragedy happens...http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/2-Bay-Area-moms-4-kids-die-in-fiery-van-crash-as-8330693.php

 

Throw that wreck onto a pile of wrecks ive seen along there over the decades.

I almost had plowed into 4 lanes worth of cars once. I come up the last hill before the Susqehenna bridge on 95 known as the Tydings bridge next to the I40 hatem memorial bridge before the rest of way to delaware past easton.

Anyhow there i am over that last hill and 4 lanes of stopped cars. It took every inch to get that stopped from 80 as everyone around me also panicked stopped. I opened the cab door and stepped down onto a station wagon filled with kids in the back playroom (The old ones, not mini vans) to get to the ground and make sure I did not hit anyone.

That was about as close as I desire to get and make the stop. Even during the stop I was not sure. Then I got scared. Pulled the springs the last 5 seconds, they helped BIG time.

 

Sir, I share with your anguish and seek to console you by saying in battle for life, God's Will be done for better or worse. We do not get to say we will live for ever for specific reasons in Genesis.

I have been taught by rail crewmen and engineers that they would have the engine into independant bunching slack asap as much as they can, as fast and hard as they can just prior to impact./// just prior to dumping the big hole passing the word after impact to the entire train front to back. Does this make sense? You can get her slowed rather fast now.

If anything, I have one question. How is it possible to avoid flat spotting your engine wheels when that tonnage piles up on your porch? Im sorry if it comes across as a stupid question, but it's driving me crazy. Number 844 did that after she overran a station in Texas a couple of years ago.

 

My prayers go out to the victims and their families . I drive that stretch of 95 often going to new haven,Hamden and Brandford. You should never be driving beyond the trucks or your own capabilities. That being said, Connecticut 4 wheelers show no mercy or common courtesy towards truck drivers. It's definitely a dangerous area and even more so during rush hr. They also have a lot of construction going on all the way from ny up to the 91/95 split. A few months back I was heading back from Newport, RI headed for the Bronx. I had my foot to the floorboard trying to make it before rush hour. I noticed traffic starting to thicken and my gut told me to slow up. Sure enough right around the next bend it was a parking lot. Thank God I went from 70 to 55 or I might have been one of those news stories. A couple of other trucks that were following me kept on cruising. I was alone in my truck but saying NO NO NO out loud as they smoked their tires and brakes trying to stop. Luckily they didn't hit or hurt anyone or themselves

 

I had been southbound leading a fast convoy for GWB NYC and westbound and up or bust one evening. There was a replacement of the entire 95 going on not far from the Q Bridge in CT where a line of police piled up to my left on the hammer lane.

To put this into context, I was number one in a convoy of approximately 40 in my fast dollar COE. Flying down between man high construction barriers in a space that is supposed to be three painted lanes of traffic, but I was very strong in taking the center of the pavement disregarding weeks and months of repainted lines and reflected tape making for a horror show of colors under the wheels that night.

The police were in 20 marked and unmarked cruisers lining up on my left just behind my cab. I got on the radio and asked if it was my ### they wanted. The Police told me no. It was a mercury 4 door filled with bad guys on my right front they wanted. And that please can me and my convoy make car sized spaces while speeding up and staying between the police and this 4 door target car. Now we all were doing 80. We speeded to 90-95 and seperated from one another making 30 foot spaces for the police to jump this 4 wheeler target.

They bounded between our tractor trailers and surrounded this 4 wheeler who tried to take off fast at 100 plus. We in our trucks hammered down and took off inadvertnely making a effective wall trapping this car to the right side of the interstate southbound.

The herd of police with guns out surrounded this car and filled with bad guys. We all did not stick around we took off. We slowed for the NY Tolls just inside the line prior to working into the bronx to get across the GWB as usual.

That was a pretty intense night. Next morning in Erie, I examined my truck for bullet holes or other issues. Did not find very much to worry about thankfully.

 

Using the indy to bunch in that scenario would be pointless, since the train brake will tend to stretch things as the air pressure drop works its way back and puts the brakes on, it will likely make that much more of a mess since some couplings may be pulled apart, there is 6 inches of slack which can be a lot of yanking with those forces. In a moment of panic engineers have been known to "plug" the traction motors by putting them in full reverse.

None of that helps, the tonnage takes time to stop moving and that's all. Freight brakes aren't much better than stagecoach level, shoes clasping wheel, passenger has discs and will stop comparatively quickly but still kill people because even they take time and distance. Freight stops no faster than it did back then, rulebooks still say 1.5 miles and it could be more.

Contact point of each wheel on rail is the size of a dime. So heavy stuff like coal and grain might stop faster than intermodal. Yep flat spots can be made by ham-handed engineers. Or you might hear a rail car go by with a thump thump thump, that car was probably dragged around the yard by someone too lazy to undo the hand brake so they dragged a flat spot on it.

Some rough weights to consider, these are stenciled on the cars and vary depending on build and resulting tare... locomotive, 250-300k pounds, empty car, 50k pounds, loaded 200-250k. Take 10,000 feet of that going 70 and it will not stop on a whole bunch of dimes.

And the gods do not care about experience, those guys who burned in Texas had many years, one had 39. They rode into Panhandle and there was a headlight coming the other way. Both intermodal trains, so possible combined speed of over 100 at impact.

There are conversations in the cab about whether to jump or ride it out, and stories where each one is best and the other fatal. When the time comes you have a few seconds to decide and do. Some who jump off are never found in the wreckage, some walk away. Some who ride it out on the floor of the cab are cut out from a demolished cab and are fine, some are crushed or burned or drown in diesel fuel.

Anyway, I'm done with it, looking to find a good driving slot. I've watched a semi cab burn right in front of me, nothing left but the frame, so it's not because I think it's safer.

 

speedyk Thank you kindly for taking time to write and correct some of my flaws in reasoning in regards to trains. I considered trains a life long interest but am not a foamer as it were. Ive had to work a 18 wheeler in close quarters with the engine and usually tried to maintain eyeball visual with the crew, if not the engine crew certainly the brakie with them.

I will be traveling later this fall if things come together to a small engine program where there is a SW1500 used with a rolling stock in a introduction program for those who have a thousand dollars extra and take a day with the instructors regarding the engine, rail and rolling stop operations in a protected area a couple of miles long.

I will be recieving a couple of days introduction and am looking forward to it.