Bourbonnais - Epilogue

Umblehoon wrote:The smart people of our species are enabling the dumb ones to continue reproducing and enfeeble the entire population!

If you could prove that common stupidity is genetic, you would win a trip to Oslo next year. You would also be cited by the next demagogue who wants to "cleanse" the Human race.

Some of your point stands. Scientific advancement has allowed people, stupid and smart, to ignore things that would have killed them in the era before coffee cups warned us to SIP WITH CARE. Litigation-driven precautions have left many to expect all dangers in the public realm to be either abated or unapproachable. But the problem isn’t genetics; it's motivation (as your post strongly suggests). Common sense is not instinct. It has to be developed. As the consequences of carelessness diminish, the lazy among us abandon their own efforts at self-preservation, relying instead on society to ensure their safety--and become indignant when it fails to do so.

Stokes was not the victim of bad genes. He simply should have known better.

efin98 wrote:I hope that man has gone though all the prosecutions that he can because he just shot himself in the foot big time in that interview and it can and will come back to haunt him if he has other trials still pending against him.

Some people can't get over themselves and admit they screwed up badly, and in the case of that gentleman- that screwup cost people their lives. Frankly he should be happy he was lucky to have survived and should be glad that he wasn't put away for the rest of his life!

Amtrak engineers go through tough training right? Also, I want to know, do they mostly have experience coming over from Frieght Trains. My dad had a high school classmate who worked for Burlington Northern, and in 94 when we were on the Empire Builder, he was suprised to hear that the new Conductor at Spokane was his classmate. He had said something about going over to Amtrak.

Anyway, the trucker was wrong, and from the pictures I saw of the wreck, he managed to knock a GENESIS off the track, those weigh about 400 tons, I guess. He ignored the warning, and the crossing arms were down. Also, I saw a documenatry on one of the networks about liscenses for bribes in Illinois that year, and it mentioned a piece about the wreck.

They DO NOT weigh 400 tons. Actual weight is 268,000 lbs. Monumental difference between 134 & 400 tons.

jg greenwood wrote:They DO NOT weigh 400 tons. Actual weight is 268,000 lbs. Monumental difference between 134 & 400 tons.

Sorry, got them confused with the Little Joes. The Genesis is heavy, and still, the impact must have been big to nock the 134 ton locomotive off the tracks.

Agree the impact had to be substantial.

even the Little Joe was only 545.600 lbs see:

The following link is an excellent account of this accident.
http://www.lexcie.zetnet.co.uk/amt-99crash.htm

If this was post 911, it may have even been considered as terrorism in the fact that the article account is the truck zig zagged around the crossing arms, not just trying to beat the train. Also take into account the steel beams were in effect, a steel wall in front of the train.

Yes he was I wanted him to get longer if he could 2 Yrs is way too short.

AmtrakFan

Two years, did you say Two Years? He should have gotten at least two decades.

sepersr wrote: If this was post 911, it may have even been considered as terrorism in the fact that the article account is the truck zig zagged around the crossing arms, ..

Criminal, yes, Terrorism, no

let's leave that card in the deck for when it's warranted.

the only things he was charged with was,

"willful violation of the maximum time limit for commercial truckers and willfully violating laws requiring him to keep an accurate logbook"

they said, "In sentencing Stokes, Erickson said that while it couldn't be proven a lack of rest led to the accident, Stokes might have been able to avoid it if he hadn't been fatigued."

he should have gotten a lot more than just 2 years

MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:the only things he was charged with was,

"willful violation of the maximum time limit for commercial truckers and willfully violating laws requiring him to keep an accurate logbook"

they said, "In sentencing Stokes, Erickson said that while it couldn't be proven a lack of rest led to the accident, Stokes might have been able to avoid it if he hadn't been fatigued."

he should have gotten a lot more than just 2 years

2 years, as I said, it should have been two alright, 2 decades and throw the book at him. Wait, the entire Law Library, as well as the falsified log book.

Folks, I hate to say this, but you need to step back, take a breath, and think about how we got to this point...

Here's the bottom line: The driver was found guilty of the ONLY charges for which he was tried. It is just plain foolish to expect ANY defendant to plead to a charge for which he wasn't tried.

The proper target For your wrath at this sentence is the prosecutor, who either declined to bring stiffer charges or couldn't persuade a grand jury to return indictments on stiffer charges.

OK? OK.

Mr Norman, may we now lock this thread?

John Perkowski