Labrat knats

[Weasels wake]

"Labrat knats", anybody got a clue?
I did a google search, and apparently I'm not the only one curious, so I did an image search and saw pics of "Labrat" only graffiti on some other stuff, so I'm thinking it might be a gang tag of some sort. Apparently it's been up there for years, painted over several times, and it keeps coming back.
What a horrible accident,,,, assuming it was an accident.

[stoneaxe]

All this talk of AI for cars. WTF are we doing with humans at the controls of a train...80 mph through a turn with a speed limit of 30. Seems to me like automation or at least some speed controls are in order. Weren't they talking about that after the last speeding accident with the texting engineer...and this is a brand new line but there's nothing on place to stop this kind of thing happening?

[eastbound]

but the US cant afford safe trains............

https://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/congress-approves-railroad-safety-delay-215260

[yugi]

Safety technology for a fixed track, fixed route is far easier than for cars.

It's only a matter of importance and investment.

[pdxmike]

Scary and maddening (seeing that the current explanation is speeding and distraction).  I've driven under that overpass hundreds of times.

[addapost]

I heard a report that there was some sort of speed control for that train on that curve and it wasn't working for some reason.

[eastbound]

autobrake tech that works well is included in 25k cars these days, and we cant put it on trains full of unwitting humans? (who now buy effing train tkts from algo-based pricing model---grrrr-but that's another beef)

of course we'd need money to do this in these tough austere times

and we'd need a regulation (God forbid--dirty word) to implement and enforce that systems work

keep in mind that in europe and asia, gas (among other things) is taxed heavily (costs 8 bux/gal+) to subsidize high quality mass transit--including slick safe 200mph+ train service--but dem apples'd be a tough sale here in the us of a---so we ride in slow crash prone cattle cars like those in developping countries, and drive/pollute unnecessarily, while we might be reading on a comfortable clean fast train......

my partner just left to drive to his suburban home from our office in manhattan to nj--nj transit has become a complete jioke of recent---the monthly ticket is a waste givern the consistent lateness and failure of service--all a result of christie's refusal to used money allocated to have more than one lousy track between nj and nyc--so he could grab election headlines having cut gas taxes--what's funny is that now that he's getting the boot, he's earmarking, finally, money for a second functional tunnel

as a guy who grew up during the wild style graffitti era (promise i never tagged up!), i notice graffitti, and wondered re labratsgnats--made me think of the cancer forums i read, and that cancer patients refer to themslve as rats or labrats--if youre stage 4, you really are a lab rat, tho the labs are doing better with keeping folks alive--melanoma sux bad-it's ravaged my family-cover up and be liberal with sunscreen

[eastbound]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bombing/comments/2s7p1j/labrat_knats_dfs_bhl_seattle/

[Eagle]

"A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) showed the train’s engineer never applied the emergency brakes before the train — which was traveling 50 mph faster than the posted 30 mph speed limit — derailed on Monday as it went around a curve in the tracks. Three passengers were killed and about 70 were injured."

"NTSB board member Bella Dinh-Zarr said at a Tuesday news conference that an engineer and a new conductor who “was familiarizing himself with the territory” were in the cab during the crash. Another conductor was in a train car interacting with passengers."

"She said it is too early to determine why the train was going so fast, but among the things investigated would be whether distraction played a role."

"But to fully collect federal stimulus money, it needed to be finished by mid-2017.  That’s why the route opened on Monday. Had officials waited a few more months, the service would have included a critical safety feature that automatically slows trains if they exceed speed limits."

"The National Transportation Safety Board first recommended the use of “automatic train control” in 1970, a year after two Penn Central commuter trains collided, killing four people and injuring 43."

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/special-equipment-brought-in-from-oregon-to-remove-derailed-amtrak-locomotive-from-i-5/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/amtrak-train-hurtles-off-overpass-at-least-6-people-killed/2017/12/18/4381da24-e450-11e7-927a-e72eac1e73b6_story.html?utm_term=.840879fd795e

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/19/amtrak-derailment-seattle-washington-positive-train-control

[PonoBill]

Automating trains given the current state of the art is a trivial exercise. There is no technical barrier to having safe trains. All it is is speed control. The location of every other train and the status of every inch of track and every crossing is knowable.

[Tom]

I wonder if the train operators union is slowing thew automation. Remember the term 'feather bedding', I think it still may be relevant.

[PonoBill]

I wonder if the train operators union is slowing thew automation. Remember the term 'feather bedding', I think it still may be relevant.

Every variety of foolishness is likely. If I wasn't a student of history I'd say we live in a time of monumental and unparalleled idiocy. But that's not really true. We've had centuries of practice.

[eastbound]

"Remember the term 'feather bedding', I think it still may be relevant."  based on what??

much as uninformed kneejerk may be to blame unions, there's always reality to check in with:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/deadline-for-train-safety-technology-undercut-by-industry-lobbying/2015/10/25/f893446a-2720-11e5-b77f-eb13a215f593_story.html?utm_term=.c59e1a1de0a7

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/us/amtrak-train-safety.html

https://www.wsj.com/articles/AP59f4c5f2928c4a889bb1118a34d6130e

and re the technology?  it's a layup, as PB and yugi say

it's a matter of priorites

and yeah, there was likely human error involved--but, doye, humans make errors, lots of them----that's why there are excellent human-override safety technologies installed on trains everywhere else in the developped world

congressmen are more concerned with mooching rides on rich-guy jets, or arranging post-politics jobs with entities they favor in policy-making, than worrying about worthless prole/drone train passengers, or those run down by freight trains.....

[Eagle]

"Freight rail companies are the biggest users of tracks in most parts of the country, and they initially did not see enough benefits to investing in positive train control."

"Mr. Boardman, who has at times been critical of his successors at Amtrak, disagreed.  “Do I think Amtrak’s unsafe?” he said. “No. It’s not unsafe, not at all.”

[Eagle]

"Amtrak workers have said they had inadequate trips to familiarize themselves with the Point Defiance Bypass route, according to a Seattle Times source."

"The NTSB has said the engineer was in the front of the train along with a conductor-in-training, and investigators will be examining whether the engineer was distracted. Callanan said it wouldn’t be abnormal to have a conductor-in-training in the cab but that it could have exacerbated the lack of situational awareness for an engineer who may have been unfamiliar with the route.

The NTSB said Friday that about six seconds before the derailment, the engineer made a comment about traveling too fast and hit the brakes. The train derailed at the corner, spilling down an embankment and onto Interstate 5 below."

Looks like the engineer did not have situational awareness until it was way too late.  He apparently was not on his cellphone and was probs distracted when they passed the 30 speed limit sign.  Sounds like a comedy of errors leading to a lot of pain and suffering for those involved.  The first responders on the scene did a good job helping those injured and needing assistance from what has been reported.  Would expect Amtrak to pay out a lot of $$$ for pain and suffering and lost wages etc based on other derailment settlements.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/amtrak-crews-express-concerns-about-training-on-new-route-where-train-derailed/