Semi Truck/Train Accident Injures Ten
A recent train derailment in Leoni Township, Michigan saw ten people hospitalized but no one killed in a collision between the train and a semi truck that was stopped across the railway tracks. That makes at least ten people that are counting their lucky stars.
The Amtrak train was bound from Michigan to Chicago, and according to reports was rounding a curve at speeds between 50 and 60 miles per hour when the engineer spotted the truck stopped across the tracks. Sam Crowl, a retired train engineer commented that at those speeds the operator of the train would not have had much time to react.
According to Crowl, the proper procedure would be to call "emergency" three times over the train intercom, put the train on full brakes, and then "hit the deck" of the engineering compartment. However, regarding the particular curve and distances involved in this crash, Crowl speculated that the engineer might not even have had time to do that much.
The collision happened just after 8 am on Wednesday, February 1st. The impact derailed the locomotive and food cars of the train, and nearly obliterated the semi truck. The engineer of the train, the driver of the semi, and eight other passengers were all taken to local hospitals. Again, quite astonishingly, they were all released over the next few days.
Statistical trends indicate that the average train engineer can be involved in 10 to 15 crashes, most of them fatal, over the course of a career operating a railway engine. Crowl only experienced two crashes in a 40 year career with the railways, but both of them were fatal.
These statistics indicate just how dangerous any collision with a train can be, but particularly a semi truck on the rails, or worse, if the truck fails to stop and strikes the side of a train. A train is of course much larger than a semi, but is balanced relatively precariously given their high center of gravity.
