Oops in San Antonio Texas

The collision occurred when a Union Pacific freight train struck a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train, said Joe Faust. Union Pacific spokesman John Bromley said his company's train was traveling at about 20 mph at the time. He said 23 of the 74 Union Pacific cars derailed. Seventeen Burlington Northern cars derailed. Looks like Union Pacific derailed a SD60M and a
SD50 or SD60.

here is the link
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Southwest/06 ... index.html

keep asking keep learning
http://trainiaxindex.cjb.net/

Why does this type of collision happen so often? I'm a layed off pilot and I'm considering changing careers, running trains seems like the best alternative to flying, but I hear about collisions quite a bit.

In the air we have air traffic controllers that help pilots keep collisions to a minimum, is there some type of controller to help trains from running into each other, or was a train crewmember at fault?

The engineer that was killed was only 23 years old according to CNN.

90MPH wrote:Why does this type of collision happen so often? ....
In the air we have air traffic controllers that help pilots keep collisions to a minimum, is there some type of controller to help trains from running into each other, or was a train crewmember at fault?

Overwhelmingly, most of these tragic incidents are the result of operator error. Western roads have been plagued with these "headlight bumpings" over the years mostly in what is called "Track Warrant Control" (TWC) territory in which there is no direct visual display of train movement at the dispatcher's (controller's) location. It's also termed "dark territory."

Trains operate with main track "authority" granted under a set of rules that is designed, as long as people do it right, to avoid such occurrances. Almost every time one of these terrible collisions happens, new procedures are added to help avoid the bad in the future.

Oh, and dispatchers have been known to make errors as well as engineers and conductors.

90MPH wrote:The engineer that was killed was only 23 years old according to CNN.

Sadly, what it often comes down to is that inexperienced operators are out there running trains when they don't know exactly where they are at all times. Accurate location awareness is a basic requirement for operating safely in TWC, or any other system.

Minute-to-minute situational awareness is critical as well, much as it is in piloting aircraft.