I don't have all the facts, but I understand there may have been several derailments in this area in the past! Nothing man-made is totally reliable (speaking as a retired aerospace engineer). Capt Murphy, whether physically alive or not, still has working "laws" in place. But when you have a pattern of catastrophic failures, it is time to do some real engineering "soul searching"! There are always "tradeoffs" between the ideal design/maintenance/operations, but when things like this happen (and NOT just on this railroad), management better start looking a the real cost of "low-cost" operations. In other words, would it have cost the railroad less to spend a bit more on track and roadbed maintenance (or whatever), and not have to pay to clean up the wreckage, settle damage claims, etc.? [The man who told the Challenger's solid rocket booster engineering management to "think like a manager, not like an engineer" should be serving time in prison, rather than enjoying his "golden parachute" retirement!] Also, does anyone think that the Keystone pipeline might prevent similar accidents "out West"?