Buenos Aires train crash (22 feb)

[nicfer]

Hi.

Anyone heard about the train crash in Buenos Aires? It happened 10 days ago but nobody posted about that, so I'll start a late topic.
One of the formations was unable to break somehow and crashed against the bumpers, which wasn't working and caused the second wagon to crush against the header one and causing most of the 51 deaths plus over 700 injuried. Like most of the railways here in Argentina it suffers the lack of maintanance, abandonment and overload of both rails and vehicles.

[61653]

I saw the news coverage about this, I was surprised at how high the death-toll was considering it was (AFAIK) a fairly low-speed buffer-overrun, though I imagine this may have been down to how crowded the train was. Seems that there is a number of issues about who is responsible for maintenance and upgrades: the private or public sector- much like we had (and to an extent still have) in the UK. The rolling stock involved didn't look massively outdated, and certainly more substantial than A LOT of the lower-quality stock we have in the UK, so I was shocked at how many injuries/deaths were caused, and how much damage. My thoughts are with those involved and their families of course.

[Pilot]

I was surprised at how high the death-toll was considering it was (AFAIK) a fairly low-speed buffer-overrun

Hit at 16 mph.

[Level Crossing]

Does Argentina not have train safety standards? (the US has very strict ones, but that has saved lives many times)

[GurraJG]

Does Argentina not have train safety standards? (the US has very strict ones, but that has saved lives many times)

Well of course they'll have safety standards, but the mere presence of such standards does not mean that accidents cannot happen.

[Level Crossing]

I meant that a train that crashes into anything at 16 mph should not lead to such a death toll.

[Pilot]

Also accidents that happened at Higher speeds had smaller death tolls. (Grayrigg, 90 mph and falls down embankment, 1 death, Big Bayou Canot, speed unknown (locos able to do 103 mph) and falls off Bridge, 47 Deaths). Yes these accidents happened in Countries where safety is the Priority, but they also happened at Higher Speeds.

[John]

It's not the speed that matters, but the deceleration.

Trains have huge momentums - so you can't compare the speed with that of a car during a crash. Your car has seat belts and massive crumple zones given the momentum, trains have neither.

Grayrigg didn't crash into anything as such - it derailed and rolled down an embankment. Big Bayou Canot crashed into the bridge. Eschede train also derailed then hit a bridge - killed 101.

[Level Crossing]

There were 14 deaths when an Amtrak train at Chase, Maryland crashed into three locomotives. The train was moving at 108 mph.

In 2008, a commuter train crashed head-on into a freight and 25 people died. However, the relative speed was 80 mph, not 15.

[Kevo00]

Probably the best comparison is with the Cannon Street crash in 1991 - where a train hit the buffers at 10mph, but two were killed and 524 injured.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannon_Str ... rail_crash

[ezzeqiel]

No, Argentina has no safety standards for trains. It's system is 40 years outdated, since no investments were made over those years. it's signalling system is even older, and in some tracks, the maximum speed is limited to 20km/h (due to bad state).

The reason for that high death toll is that wagons "telescoped". Recent investigations showed the wagons traveled at different heights (up to 9cm), making telescoping easier in case of collision.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescoping_(railway)

There also has been said that the station buffers didn't work at the time of the crash.

If you add the amount of people traveling at that time, you have that death toll. Those trains travel at FULL capacity (meaning that people literally push as hard as they can to enter the trains, and even so, sometimes they can't even achieve it).

There's a picture took by a rescue firemen (and published by a local newspaper) showing what happened inside the wagons that telescoped (travelling packed of people).
(Warning, it may seem graphic to some people)
http://bucket1.clanacion.com.ar/anexos/ ... 16w645.jpg