Breaking: Train carrying Republicans to a retreat has crashed / collision, injuries reported

So why was the truck parked on the tracks??

I heard Hillary was seen hobbling away from the site of the accident.



Sorry....couldn't resist.

a reply to: queenofswords

Well, I mean, most anytime a vehicle hits another that applies, right? Someone screwed up or it was intentional.

a reply to: face23785

They are backing up to Charlottesville to get people on busses. The retreat is still going forward at this time.
President is supposed to speak there tomorrow.

a reply to: RadioRobert

The driver walked away. With assistance but upright.
Sounds like an accident to me.

a reply to: face23785

Yeah, I drove 18-wheelers for 8 years and a dumpy truck (tri-axle) for several months after that. They're really not as substantial as most people think... they're just big, and heavy around the frame and drive train. Everything else is light as possible to let them haul more of a payload.

Local drivers are the craziest... OTR, they train you and train you and train you until the very thought of a railroad accident is like considering suicide. You get used to the road etiquette. You learn quickly what the truck will and won't do, and you take care of it... it's your home as well, after all.

But local drivers don't see it as a home; they see it as a machine they operate until quitting time. It also only takes a class B license to drive a straight truck, not a class A like I had... the state requirements for class B training are much more lax.

TheRedneck

Okay just to clear up some stuff... For the member who suggested they were going to their bunkers, do a little research... This is a yearly retreat normally happening right after the State Of the Union... Also... There are some people who have been involved in government who should be headed to their bunkers and it ain't Republicans.

In my opinion... This absolutely was foul play.. Cmon! What garbage man tries to cross Amtrak tracks.. I would think that since it's a residential area, the access was easy for someone to try and derail the train at that particular point. If the garbage truck knew the area, im sure, unless he's a complete moron, knew the running schedule of the train. Just saying! This looks bad.

--3 people in the cab, didn't see the red lights for approaching train?
Oh yea... and CHARLOTTESVILLE

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: face23785

They are backing up to Charlottesville to get people on busses. The retreat is still going forward at this time.
President is supposed to speak there tomorrow.

Yeah I'm aware of that. I was responding to a post about how the train was taking them away from DC because DC was going to be nuked or some nonsense like that. If that were the case, when this happened, there would've been an immediate scramble to get off the train and continue heading away from DC, somehow, anyhow. Nobody would've sat on the train cooperating with the investigation and waiting for over an hour getting moved back towards DC.

I really truly hope this was not an attack on the gop. I really try hope that no political party would stoop this low in our country.

a reply to: TheRedneck

The last car was an engine. Front car engine is derailed. They will be a very long time getting it out of there. One congressman said. They are backing up to Charlottesville to put everyone on busses.

originally posted by: Somethingsamiss
I really truly hope this was not an attack on the gop. I really try hope that no political party would stoop this low in our country.

There's absolutely no reason to think it was at this point. All signs point to an accident right now.

a reply to: TheRedneck

Like they tried to beat the train? That's a plan that seldom ends well isn't it?

We lost a van full of teens here years ago now who tried to beat a train. But stupid teens and grown men should think differently.

I doubt this is anything, if it was some sort of FF the perpetrators would have found a way to derail the train......

Just running into a dump truck seems pretty minor for the passengers on the train....

Not for the dump truck driver obviously....that part sucks

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: TheRedneck

Like they tried to beat the train? That's a plan that seldom ends well isn't it?

We lost a van full of teens here years ago now who tried to beat a train. But stupid teens and grown men should think differently.

A few years ago a mom with a minvan full of kids (not all hers) taking them to school tried to beat a train and failed. As I recall there was only one survivor. You don't magically become smart once you reach a certain age.

ETA: I remembered some of the details wrong. Still incredibly stupid and reckless. Flying through a parking lot, then not looking the other way at the crossing. Probably had a hair appointment or something she was gonna be late for.

a reply to: TheRedneck

Maybe they mean it stalled out, but then why didn't the driver get out when he saw the train coming?  

Another thing to consider is you don't have to be in the truck to be killed or injured when all that m*v^2 goes flying after a collision. They might have just been standing too close. You'd think people would know to walk/run a good distance away from the tracks and toward the train, but there are a lot of people short on sense out there.

a reply to: queenofswords

Or this was an accident that was completely random.

originally posted by: AndyFromMichigan
It's being reported that Rep. Jason Lewis (R-MN) is being taken to the hospital.

According to Fox News,

Rep. Jason Lewis, R-Minn., told Fox News he had a “little bit of a whiplash” and “maybe a tiny bit of a concussion."

I'd like to see the front pointing video of the lead Amtrak engine. I'd like to see if the truck was blocked on the tracks by another vehicle or vehicles. Many times the video has been disabled by the engineer but I believe the cameras are locked and no one on the train can access them now.

BNSF Forward Facing Camera

Gotta love some of the click-bait headlines too. I saw "One killed in train crash carrying members of Congress". While technically true, that's incredibly misleading. Seeing that as their first information about the incident would probably lead some people to assume a member of Congress was killed. People don't always have time to read articles. They should be more responsible with headlines. It's not the 90s anymore, you can fit pretty long headlines to be more descriptive and lead people to accurate conclusions.

And as long as we're posting train videos, I have to add the old suicidal camels:

The name of the truck is in big red letters: T I M E