Posted on 01/06/2005 8:37:59 AM PST by Peach
Residents still urged to stay indoors with ventillation off. Thankfully it's mild here.
FBI has been called in, although that may be standard operating procedure.
The University is being used as a staging area to decontaminate people before they are admitted to the hospital. The scenes look like something from when we had our anthrax attacks.
The three local channels have been pre-empted since 4:00 a.m.
All chemicals are 'hazardous' to the crAP. These three are CRESOL, Sodium Hydroxide and Chlorine gas.
'Member, ya' kain't spiel krap widoubt AP
I wonder what caused the train accident in the first place. Chlorine gas is nasty...
thanks :^)
btt
I think that's why the FBI was called in. (To find out what happened). Weather is in the 60's and 70's last few days, no fog.
Three dead so far. Roadblocks still in place and residents told to stay in until further notice.
It is these days.
Apparently a switch that should have been closed, allowing the train moving down the single track to pass the other train sitting in the siding, was left open, thus directing the moving train into the occupied siding and hitting the sitting train. The question is why was this switch open. From what I've just read, this happened on a rail line that doesn't have signals. Instead they are given verbal permission by a dispatcher to write down authority to occupy pieces of track, which they then repeat to the dispatcher to confirm accuracy. Part of this system confers responsibility for switch position. The system works fine as long as everybody follows the rules, pays attention, and doesn't make a mistake.
Unfortunately, without signals(which show track occupancy) and other sensors that show switch position and allow the dispatcher to control the switch, there aren't backup safeguards if someone does make a mistake. Now add in the factor that the railroads are allowed to work many of their employees on a system that doesn't allow for a regular sleep cycle. You can be called to work at 3am, work until 2pm, called back at 8pm to report at 10pm, work until 9:59am, called again at 4pm to report at 6pm, work until 5:30am, called again at 11:30 for 1:30pm, off early at 5pm (but you can't fall asleep), called at 11pm for 1am, work until 1pm, on and on and on. Many of these guys are walking zombies, and crew fatigue is one of the most prevalent factors in railroad accidents. Huge issues that has been allowed to go unrepaired. So the most likely cause is simply crew error, someone reported in the clear in the siding without closing the switch (though not necessarily the crews in the wreck, could have been a prior crew.)
But there have also been cases of tampering with switches by kids or vandals, and it is even possible that it was an act of terrorism, but the latter is very, very, very unlikely given the remote location and relatively sparse population. There are safeguards to prevent unauthorized movements of switches by persons other than railroad workers.
These types of wrecks have happened before, ever since railroads were invented.
continued prayer heavenward
I did accident investigation for the old Southern RR, but mostly in the Atlanta metro area . . . and everything here is signalled out the wazoo, if anything there's a chance of confusion because of too MANY signals.
I guess they can't afford to do every siding on the entire main line, but surely the major ones . . . ?!?!?
We had a Cl2 spill at a siding near our house awhile back. It was an ungodly mess, and even a little bit of the stuff will hurt you.
Fortunately we were upwind and the gas tended to settle towards the river where there wasn't much residential property.
Stay indoors til you get the all clear.
Thanks. Yes, I'm staying indoors.
3 fatalities and 3 in critical condition. Untold number of others in serious condition. Media reports at the hospital they can still smell chlorine outside.
Thanks for that good explanation.
I don't think there is anything related to terrorism here but it must be SOP to call in the FBI, although local media says they don't have an answer why this was done.
R.I.P. Southern RR
I doublechecked the map, and Graniteville is on their line from Augusta, GA to Columbia, SC. Probably not enough traffic to economically justify signalling the line would be my guess (I used to work for the NS, but not down south), though after the lawsuits they may end up putting in switch-alignment indicators (which won't help with broken rails or a bridge out, but to be fair, the railroads aren't really earning their cost of capital these days, yet are swamped with new traffic that requires capacity expansion.)
Speaking of signals, the best I ever heard of were color position lights, where instead of just the normal red, amber, green they also were duplicated with 3 lights in a row: green vertical, amber diagonal, and red horizontal. Much safer and easier to determine from a distance, but I guess they cost too much, because I understand they are being phased-out and replace with the standard 'traffic light'-type signals.
Sometimes, even as a conservative, I question how effective the FRA is with their safety oversight.
TWC with no CTC islands. Scary.
And those in the know, know to keep their mouths shut.
It is said around here that if there is an accident in this area, 9 out of 10 times it is CSX. I guess this is one of those 1 in 10 times.
Another train accident today...in Kentucky I think. It was a CSX train that wasn't carrying chemicals like this one in SC.
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