Five years removed... and we're still dealing with this. Right, lets look back... and for the most definite record we have on hand, lets pull the
NTSB report on the accident.
Now my read is this:
- Kids throw or drop rocks off the Diamond Street Bridge around 9pm onto an inbound SEPTA train from Trenton, causing the front plate glass to smash over the engineer of the train. Train is thrown into emergency stop.
- 9:13pm, the now injured SEPTA engineer calls CTEC to warn the problem and request medical attention.
- The engineer of 188 splits his attention between the radio and the railroad in case of any problems that may be ahead... and loses his bearings.
- Thinking he's past Frankford, the engineer of 188 guns it. Train speeds up, has no external limits (PTC/ATC/etc)... and crashes.
I'm reminded from Leonard French, an attorney in Philadelphia who has a Youtube series on various law cases, that you can only be so far removed to be found liable for some crimes (like manslaugher or murder). I'm of the opinion that they're past that threshold -- the kids probably knew that they'd cause a train to stop... but to cause another train to crash five-ish neighborhoods away? Not likely at all.
Take the engineer of 188 out (because there's not enough facts to say one way or the other if he's guilty or not) and who can you see is liable?
Lets take everything into consideration, and take out the human element. The NTSB says that ether PTC or a properly signaled system would have mitigated or prevented the train from crashing. PTC was running late (partly because of Congress and/or the FCC dragging it's feet), and Amtrak had assumed that the signals were proper as no reasonable engineer would be going over track speed limits.
But then the engineer is human, and we all know how irrational we can be.
Had Amtrak assumed nothing and set their signalling up right, then the engineer would of realized his mistake and slowed down... or the train would of thrown itself into emergency well before the curve.
Had PTC not been delayed and was active on that track but with no other adjustments, I think the crash still would have happened, but at a slower speed, and NTSB would be screaming at Amtrak for screwing up the install.
Had both PTC not been delayed and Amtrak properly setting signaling, the train would be thrown in emergency as it was traveling geographically east (turning from east-north-east), well before Franklin Junction.
Congress and the FTC I think trigger that threshold. Amtrak would be under it, but it's capped on liability, and I bet that's been tapped dry. So the lawyers for the families are going after the engineer... and the courts are wrangling over if they even have enough proof to go through a trial.
Excuse me, I'm sick of popcorn right now... I'm heading to the loo...
