Entry #9 - February 24th, 2015

Officials: Train technology prevented tragedy in S. California

Feb 24th, 2015

By: Johnny Yu

CNN News

A terrible train crash happened on Tuesday involving a passenger train and a pickup truck in Southern California. If this had occurred five years ago, more people would have been injured or killed, said officials with the commuter service.

Some of the Metrolink cars in the crash were equipped with collision energy management technology. This safety technology was implanted after the crash between a freight train and a Metrolink train in 2008, which caused the death of 25 people.

Gladly, no one died in this accident. What happened was that before sunrise, a driver of a produce truck accidentally mistook the train tracks for the road and tried to turn onto them. But at least 28 people were injured, including three in critical condition.

Apparently the train cars in this accident were relatively new and the safety features were much better at absorbing the impact of a crash than older trains. The front end of the car that hit the truck was designed to crumple and disperse the energy of the collision, said Metrolink spokesman Jeff Lustgarten.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a written statement that the train could have been going at the speed of 79 mph before the crash. The driver of the truck was hospitalized and questioned by investigators, but later arrested on suspicion of felony hit and run.

My Own Thoughts & Opinions

Technology these days is not only developing for entertainment and convenience, it is also developing for our safety. Like the safety technology they used on the train cars in this crash, it prevented what could have been a huge accident involving a lot of deaths, and saved many people's lives. As for the driver of the pickup truck, I just want to say that please drive with caution. Your little mistake could have killed many people. Also after the accident, there is no point of trying to run away from it, it would only make the scenario worse. After all, I am glad that the passengers' safety was put on priority for public transportation.