Fatal derailment west of Toronto

dowlingm

Sad news out of the local area tonight - a VIA Rail Canada F40PH derailed at Burlington coming from Niagara Falls, ON with five LRC trailers. The loco and one trailer ended up on their side, the two locomotive engineers and a trainee in the lead cab were killed. The train was not long out of a stop at Aldershot so thankfully the train had not reached full line speed. At the moment it is unclear why the loco derailed. It had received a major rebuild two years ago.
http://livenews.thestar.com/Event/Via_Rail_train_crash

dowlingm

update on this - TSB initial report says the train ran the switch at 67mph - the switch has a 15mph limit. Either the signalling did not warn them of the change of track or they (2+trainee in the cab) missed the signal.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/01/via-rail-train-in-fatal-burlington-derailment-was-going-four-time-faster-than-allowed/

dowlingm

TSB report released:
http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/rail/2012/r12t0038/r12t0038.asp

Recommendations include failsafe train controls beginning on highest speed corridors, forward *and* cab facing video, rebuilt locos to have same cab safety/rollover standards as new build and proper reporting by family physicians of medical conditions - even when deemed stable - affecting safety critical persons.

The discussion on the usefulness of safety belts and the effect fitting them has on seat crashworthiness was interesting.