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Amtrak train was traveling at twice speed limit before it derailed

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Simply put a driver who exceeds the speed limit is potentially endangering everyone else around them. The speed limit is set according to what has been established as the maximum speed at which it is safe to travel. The entities that establish these limits measure a variety of factors in order to determine what the speed limit should be. This means that traveling over the limit is not only breaking the law, but also risking the well-being and safety of the passengers. In the end a driver's speeding effects many people and they should be held accountable for their reckless and irresponsible actions when it causes many people to suffer.

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This guy was young. Texting on his cellphone or hungover. No doubt. Why else would he need legal representation when the authorities interrogated him?

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He was driving in an accident in which people died. Innocent or guilty you'd be stupid not to have a lawyer present when questioned.

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Approaching that turn @ over 100 mph, grossly negligent while performing his duties. He'll need a lawyer-no doubt.

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People died. The train was going way too fast. Why would there have been a speed limit? Uhh, because breaking it can endanger lives? Who was in control, driving and controlling its speed? The answer seems to be there. Things don't look good for the engineer. Things are worse for those who lost family, friends, colleagues.

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The NTSB will determine probable cause. In order to remain unbiased, they are completely independent from the transportation authorities -- both the government ones and the privately-owned ones. (As an example, the NTSB and the FAA are constantly at loggerheads over aircraft safety issues.) Things such as cell-phone and text records covering the derailment window will be examined along with the items mentioned in the article above. The first thing they will try to do is determine whether an equipment malfunction contributed to the derailment (stuck throttle, brake failure, etc.) At the same time they will be interviewing the engineer and examining his work history. They will also interview survivors as they see a need to do so. In the end, they will list ALL the contributing factors of the derailment and leave it up to the responsible government agencies to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Until they do that, blaming the engineer is premature. Guessing that he was texting or otherwise distracted is irresponsible. In the end he may well be at fault, but it's too soon in the investigation to say so.

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Guessing that he was texting or otherwise distracted is irresponsible.

Not too irresponsible. Reasonable though. Based on the catastrophe which occurred in CA a few yrs bck. He was obviously distracted. Gross negligence no matter what. Conducting a train ain't rocket science. Consequently, it ain't so irresponsible to make that assumption.

@32, obviously this guy didn't suffer a stroke or heart attack as he blasted through a curve at over 100mph. Ehh?

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The Engineer is young, texting is possible however even he should have been able to realize his speed was way over limit. He's was only minutes from the last stop in a heavily populated city route area. There is more to it than that.

And some liberals immediately jumped on the infrastructure needs more $$$ and the conservatives are preventing that. Shame on those who tried to use this tragedy to increase taxes.

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If America is "Number One" why is our infrastructure so poor. USA! USA!

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It could have been exhaustion also recalling that crash years ago in Maryland in which the engineer (or conductor ?) had fallen asleep at the wheel, and train operators notoriously still don't get enough time off between runs. Whatever happened, hopefully he will be able to recall any unusual or extreme circumstances leading up to the accident because it seems likely there was speeding all along the stretch of that track.

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If America is "Number One" why is our infrastructure so poor. USA! USA!

Actually only our passenger system is poor. This is because railroads in the United States are focused on freight transport. If you look at the data for the cost of freight transport, the United States actually has one of the best freight systems in the world (in terms of cost to move stuff around). There's an inherent trade-off at play here - freight and passenger trains often travel on the same rails, with the difference being that nobody cares if freight travels slowly but they do care if passenger trains travel slowly. Higher speed tracks require more maintenance, however. So you can either have fast passenger trains but expensive freight, or slow passenger trains but inexpensive freight. Since the automobile dominates in the US, it makes perfect sense to favor freight.

Now that you understand, please refrain from reflexive anti-Americanism.

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And some liberals immediately jumped on the infrastructure needs more $$$ and the conservatives are preventing that. Shame on those who tried to use this tragedy to increase taxes.

Let's not equivocate. The infrastructure DOES need more money and the REPUBLICANS blocked it. Had that section of track received Positive Train Control (PTC) and Transmission-Based Train Control (TBTC) improvements, the train would have never exceeded the speed limit. That's a fact that is irrefutable. I'm sure this will be one of the factors contributing to the derailment that the NTSB will will flag in their final report. It won't be the MAIN cause, but it WILL be a factor.

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I don't disagree Fadamor. Our infrastructure is in need of updates and repair. The problems are labor union pay scales and work ethic. But number one factor is wher does the money come from? We're already driving corporations offshore. "Made in Mexico" is much more common compared to 15-20 years ago. REPUBLICANS know over taxation is not the answer for revenue. DEMOCRRATS seem to think it grows on trees (or just print more). We've gone beyond the limit. Good example is NY state pushing lower corporate tax for start ups and moving into state.

Numerous other regulations are inhibiting updating the public transit infrastructure. And public already public transportation subsidies are out of control.

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"If America is "Number One" why is our infrastructure so poor. USA! USA!"

America has the best freight rail system in the world.

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Let's not equivocate. The infrastructure DOES need more money and the REPUBLICANS blocked it. Had that section of track received Positive Train Control (PTC) and Transmission-Based Train Control (TBTC) improvements, the train would have never exceeded the speed limit. That's a fact that is irrefutable. I'm sure this will be one of the factors contributing to the derailment that the NTSB will will flag in their final report. It won't be the MAIN cause, but it WILL be a factor.

There's a huge difference between an incident caused my bad infrastructure (e.g. roads, tracks, bridges, etc) and one that could have been prevented by such and such safety systems. The direct cause of the derailment is the train going above the speed limit, it wasn't in any way, shape, or form caused by a lack of positive train control. We could save literally thousands of lives every year by decreasing speed limits on highways, but we don't because we accept the current trade-off between lives and accidents versus productivity and time. The same mindset can be applied to safety systems like Positive Train Control. Now maybe the trade-off in that case is worth it. But don't for a second think that Democrats occupy some moral high ground on these issues, when they too ultimately have to draw the line somewhere between safety and expense. Being outraged that some people draw that line a little differently is absurd when the line itself is arbitrary.

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