My husband works w/ the railroad. He saw this video months ago at work and told me you wait, this will eventually make it to YouTube.

My husband works in CSX and this wreck was BNSF so he never heard the details. Looking at it you can see that the train with the camera passes through a red signal just before the crossing.

There's editing for time and distance. When he knows the other train is coming,you can hear the air of the brakes. Notice another red signal just before impact.
The weird thing is the switch is on the camera's side. He should have been able to switch tracks before the oncoming train arrived. The other train shouldn't have been there either. Both seemed to have screwed up.

In any case, none died, just injured. You can see the oncoming engineer jump just before impact.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

It looks like the train with the camera on it veers a little bit before impact - maybe it was a failed track switch.

If the oncoming train wasn't there, then he should have been able to make the switch.

Also since there was editing, there could have been a switch he missed long before he arrived.

Very intense! Jumping doesnt seem like a sure thing. The train impacted on the side that you would think would push the other engine over towards the jumper.

yeah, but look at his alternative. I'm surprised he waited that long. I'm positive during that last stretch, the other crew had already bailed.

I worked as an intern at General Electric's Transportation division. I got to do some destructive testing of locomotives - shorting out high-power circuits, causing big booms and lots of smoke. And several times it looked like we would hit some idiot in a car trying to cross the tracks at the last minute. But I never got to run two locomotives into each other head on!

This would be a pretty good candidate of another "how I lost my job today" clip

The first signal was definately red. By passing the red signal the dispacher's (or rtc) bord should've lit up and informed him that a train went past a red. The second signal, if you look was red over green. I'm not sure the meaning on the BNSF but if it's anything like CN (whom I work for), that signal is a diverging clear meaning the train was ok to cross over to avoid a head on collision. The oncoming train should've had a red signal. His fault for running that.

Since there's no radio audio, it's possible, but unlikely, that the RTC gave him permission past the red signal. In most cases though, even when given permission past a red signal, you're still supposed to stop before passing.

Interesting clip none the less.

Another thing. It was tough for me to tell but is there a number plate on the first red signal he passes? According to CN rules, that's a restricting signal and he should've slowed down to no more then 20mph prepared to stop one half the distance of the oncoming train to give him enough time to come to a complete stop. Again, not sure how it's stated for the BNSF.

Well, we know engineers sleep sometimes on those engines. I used to fill up a thermos of extra strong coffee for my husband when he was running at night.
Some guys sleep right through those signals. Scary thought given what's in some of those tankers

[Krupo runs off to play some classic Railroad Tycoon]... well, I wish I had that set up - you could do exactly this in that game, and you'd get a nice animation to go along with it - it was too cool!

It really does look like it was taking the switch - guess the other train was moving too which would've made this absolutely impossible to work. Cool sift!

total upvote for the very informative comments. I love how many experts come out of the woodwork on this site. Hooray VS.

I love VideoSift.

a great start of the day

New Fox TV series..."When Trains Attack!"

"There is but one survivor, and he is miraculously unharmed." - Mr. Glass

(couldn't resist)

Some history,- Sept. 14, 1896-the "Crash at Crush" immortalized by famed Texas ragtime composer Scott Joplin in his march, "Great Crush Collision," early in the 20th century.
This was a staged train collision that killed several spectators...they did not do another one...

Damn! How close were the spectators?

Those train wreck sounds are straight out of Looney Tunes! Life imitates art.

WTF?!! Everyone on here knows about trains? I thought we had engineers as in the geek type, not the choo choo type.

Surely train engineers (the kind that design them not drive them) could devise a better braking system for a train by now? I understand there's a whole lot of mass to stop, but for an average train traveling 55mph to take over a mile to come to a complete stop (numbers taken from some factoid I read somewhere a while ago), seems like that can be improved somehow.

think about that...over a MILE long. The train that long and heavy will buckle, break knuckles and derail if the train stops too abruptly.. "You canna change the laws o' physics, Captain!"

Instead of worrying about breaking ability, the exec jerks that try to save a dime should quit pulling up track. See back "in the day" there was alot more two lane track. Now most of it's pulled to save money so trains have to worry about coordinating and switching.

Did you know that on some rural areas is called "dark territory" where there are no signals to let them know if other trains are coming? They have to rely on dispatchers to let them know what to do.

agreed swampgirl. that was the first thing that I noticed, only one track. Guess I've been in France too long because that seems unfathomable to me.

It looked to me like the second train was sitting at the switch - notice that as the camera train gets closer, the second train never moves from its spot. So I'm thinking that the second train parked a little too close to the switch and when the camera train switched to the second track (notice how it had veered right just before the impact), it struck the other train a glancing blow. So I don't think it was a true head-on (especially with one train sitting there.

The train with video camera on board ran the red signal on account of the signal going back to red as the train approached it... as the engineer was not expecting the signal to go back in front of his train it takes time to react and.. (as we see...) for the train to stop..

The reason signal was at red was because the other train (the train this train collides with) ran a red signal and because of this that will automatically put the first signal we see back to red to prevent an accident... unfortunately the first train did not stop in time and appears to clip the leading locomotive of the second stationary train...

(it's very difficult to stop a train.. when the engineer has done all he can.. he's just along for the ride... having no control of the train.. he's basically deciding when is the best time jump clear... hoping that he does not impale himself on any lineside equipment or wrap himself round a signal post..)

the train with the video camera on board had the right of way.. hence the position of the switch and the signal before the switch... the second train caused the accident...

I hope this clears up any misunderstanding...

Cheers
David

Don't you think the second train was moving as well? I mean if I had it parked, I would have long jumped out and ran clear of the thing. This guy leaps out at the last min. Obviously it's because he was still tying to stop the train until the last possible moment.

Derby thanks for the info.

could have been... although i doubt it.. i think he may have been getting permission from the despatcher to back his train up behind his signal...

cheers...
all the best..
David

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