A diesel train has derailed and caused a massive fire which has destroyed buildings, sixty people are missing.

Has anyone been affected by this ?

Not me

Apparently the train was secured for the night and the driver left to get some sleep. Then later the train escaped and eventually ran off the rails in a small town. Sound very suspicious IMO

One confirmed dead at the mo, I presume more to follow as it ran thru a bar as it crashed.

Some of those photo's are really crazy....that was a massive explosion...

Here's a link to the incident:


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23212541


Quite scary!!!

Ruby

I'm waiting for the T-word to come up.

The five locos didn't go anywhere. They stayed where they were with their brakes on. Either the coupling failed, or someone helped it.

One would probably not need to be a mathematical genius to calculate how fast a line of 77 tankers would be going by the time it reached the bend and how many cars would get round it before derailment happened.

My missus saw a local eye witness report that the train was burning before it derailed. I have not seen that report anywhere but, if it's true, attention will be paid to exactly which bit of the train was burning. If it was the bit the derailed, things look very suspicious indeed.

I feel for that little town. Almost everyone will have been affected. There are still dozens of people missing and most of them were in a bar right next to the explosion. There will be little left to identify.

I am also intrigued by reports of a carriage/tank on fire earlier when it was "parked" up near Nantes. Fire crews apparently attended and put it out then left.

Someone inadvertently did something then I reckon, or something happened around this point.

Bloody awful situation, which will justifiably raise questions about the rail system (and some 457 "incidents" on the rails in the last year).

I guess we'll find out eventually. It was either deliberate or a monumental cock-up.

Just a staggering amount of human error this weekend. Why the train company thought it was a good idea to park a train hauling a combustible load up a hill, with a potential derail point in the middle of a town seems neglectful (no matter what allowed it to start moving).

The we have a plane crash caused by pilot inexperience. Then, one of the two fatalities at that scene was caused by a first responder running her over.

With all the technology we have available these days, I'm really surprised to learn that the plane wasn't capable of overriding the pilot's attempts at controlling it and the train had no warning or self-braking system.

My son said that it is simply amazing how we as humans have become more stupid with the advancement of science and technology. It is shocking. Recently, I smelled gas in the school I work in and I reported it to the principal. She was just very matter of fact about it and said if I didn't feel comfortable about it I could leave but I should remember that I will not be paid for that day. I thanked her for sharing that information with me and I left, others thought about it but were reluctant to leave. Yes, there was a gas leak and the building had to be evacuated. I was safely away from that mess and my pay wasn't docked. A similar incident occurred in my school in UK, the principal immediately evacuated the building, everybody was sent home and we returned once it was deemed safe to do so. Certain people should not be in positions of authority needing common sense decisions.

I hope the rail car tragedy points to the true cause or causes of what went wrong.

Ruby

Why be surprised?

There is a sad piece in the paper today about a little kid getting crushed to death by a retaining wall that collapsed on him. I know where the house is because I can see it from my back yard. It's a new development of very large houses, with tiny back yards, built on a very steep slope.

I watched those houses go up and always thought that building on a slope like that was an accident waiting to happen. Unfortunately, it did happen.

Those houses should never have been built there and the people that own them are going to find it hard to sell from now on.

I'll bite, what's the T-word?

Terrorist.

I thought it was known. My mistake.

Because the technology is already available. We have drones that can take-off, fly and land themselves. Passenger aircraft have autopilot systems and warning systems which, if they were linked up, would be able to avoid crashes such as the one at the weekend.

Regarding the train, I'd imagine the cost to implement a warning system (to detect when the air brakes are inactive and the train is on a slope) would cost little more than $20 to construct.

I think the autopilot system on the plane was turned off.

No cause has been determined yet in the San Francisco crash. And the pilot was only new to the 777, he is a very experienced pilot with nearly 10,000 total hours having previously flown 737 and 747 aircraft and had flown into SFO in the past without incident.