Serious UP Wreck in Glenview/Northbrook,IL/Viaduct Collapse

Excerpt from the report:

Three of the four steel spans and other portions of the superstructure were found in the debris at the derailment site. ... All three spans were twisted or bent to some extent but none of them showed evidence of failure in vertical bending. ... It appeared that the force of the derailing cars knocked some or all of the spans from the substructure.

The one thing that most people forget, don't know or just don't care is that railroad tracks and right of way is private property and it is the public who encroaches on railroad property in the form of grade crossings and underpasses, not the other way around. And they ought to make the loser of a civil case be responsible for the costs incurred by the defendant in behalf of his defense.

mikado-2-8-2 wrote:The one thing that most people forget, don't know or just don't care is that railroad tracks and right of way is private property and it is the public who encroaches on railroad property in the form of grade crossings and underpasses, not the other way around. And they ought to make the loser of a civil case be responsible for the costs incurred by the defendant in behalf of his defense.

You make it sound like it was the victim's fault that they were killed in this accident. As if they were trespassers who should not have been on the right of way. Even if their only crime was legally driving under a railroad on an open road.

By building the bridge the railroad invited the public to cross the tracks at this point. That decision comes with responsibility.