Trussrod
Well-Known Member
David ..... Because the locomotive crew was too drunk to run the train, the train should not have been running at all. .... The yard clerk did not belong in the locomotive cab, and certainly not at the controls. . ... Another fact, I did not mention is there was an employee at the origin terminal in Baton Rouge who observed the yard clerk boarding the locomotive. He failed to report was he saw, and was in trouble for that failure. I think I heard he was fired. ....Read Willie's and Joe's comments. ....
Boris ... I'm sorry to learn about the fatal accident you described.
Ok, granted she shouldn't have been there but neither should the liquor which very possibly was more of the cause of the calamity than she was. It caused the engineer to pass out drunk and possibly incapacitated the fireman too ?! Even Joe mentioned he lost a good fried to another drunk engineer who slammed into the cabin car his friend was in. The problem lies in the inability of the responsible individual/s to maintain a clear focus on what they are supposed to be doing rather than allowing their attention to be distracted for any discernable amount of time due to whatever reason which sounds like what happened in this case. The lady was just an added distraction like talking on the cell phone, hands free or not while driving your car and especially texting which have caused other train wrecks too. The ability to maintain clear focus of the situation at hand is of the utmost importance.
As an added note Garry, you mentioned that with the train crew drunk it should have been stopped! So why wasn't it stopped then?? Refer to my statement above about, 'Clear focus of the situation at hand', if the train shouldn't have been rolling down the tracks then why was it?? Because the engineer and fireman lost focus of their responsibilities !! They allowed their focus to become clouded due to liquor or whatever. Again, They allowed their attention to be distracted or clouded. That's the bottom line.
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