Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Razgovory]

And then this happened.

Engineer intentionally crashes train near hospital ship Mercy, believing in weird coronavirus conspiracy, feds say

On Tuesday afternoon, California Highway Patrol officer Dillon Eckerfield was rumbling down Harbor Avenue on his police motorcycle, in San Pedro, Calif., when he witnessed a strange sight: a freight train flying off the end of the tracks.

It didn't even try to slow down. He watched it smash through the concrete and steel barriers at the track's dead end, near the Port of Los Angeles. It crashed through a chain-link fence, careened through a parking lot and another gravel lot — barely missing three occupied vehicles — and then finally, after taking out another fence, came to a halt.

Roughly 800 feet ahead was the USNS Mercy, the Navy medical ship providing relief to hospitals overburdened with coronavirus patients — where police now believe the train's engineer was intentionally headed.

Eckerfield pulled a U-turn, speeding in the direction of the spectacular train wreck, according to an FBI affidavit describing the incident. As he approached, he could see a man in a bright yellow fluorescent vest jump down from the train's cab and start running. He was easy to follow. Eckerfield sped into the West Basin Container Terminal, an enormous ship cargo yard, and found the man in the yellow vest walking toward him. Eckerfield drew his weapon and ordered the man onto the ground.

Right away, as Eckerfield placed him under arrest, the suspect spilled out his story.

"You only get this chance once. The whole world is watching," the suspect, later identified as Eduardo Moreno, told Eckerfield. "I had to. People don't know what's going on here. Now they will."

Moreno, 44, was charged Wednesday in federal court with one count of train wrecking after admitting to intentionally running the train off the tracks in the direction of the Mercy hospital ship, the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles said in a statement. No one was injured in the wreck, which caused a "substantial fuel leak" handled by firefighters, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors say Moreno was "suspicious of the USNS Mercy," believing officials were lying about its true purpose. He believed "it had an alternate purpose related to covid-19 or a government takeover," they said.

Moreno was held in jail overnight by local authorities before making his first appearance in federal court Tuesday on the train-wrecking charge, which carries a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison.

Moreno could not immediately be reached for comment late Wednesday, and it's unclear if he has an attorney. A spokesman for Anacostia Rail Holdings Company — which operates Moreno's employer, Pacific Harbor Line — said in a statement to The Washington Post that Moreno's locomotive was pulling a single rail car when it ran off the track at a high speed.

"Thankfully there were no injuries," said the spokesman, Stefan Friedman. "The engineer of the train has been arrested and charged, and we are fully cooperating with all authorities as they proceed with their investigation."

In interviews with the FBI and Los Angeles Port Police, Moreno said that "everything was normal" and "no one was pushing my buttons" when he came to work on Tuesday morning. He said he hadn't spoken to anyone about wrecking a train, and didn't even plan it himself until the idea came to him spontaneously that afternoon, he said.

It popped into his head as he contemplated the pandemic — particularly the hospital ship.

The USNS Mercy arrived at the Port of Los Angeles on Friday to treat non-coronavirus trauma patients, thereby freeing up intensive-care at local hospitals treating covid-19 patients. The USNS Comfort arrived in New York for the same purpose.

But in a conspiratorial mind, Moreno told detectives he had been "putting the pieces together." He no longer believed "the ship is what they say it's for." He believed "they are segregating us, and it needs to be put in the open," according to the affidavit, which doesn't explain what Moreno might have meant by that.

He was pushing his last train of the day, a cargo bound for Vietnam, when the idea hit him: He could "draw the world's attention" to the USNS Mercy if he derailed the train, and then "people could see for themselves," according to the affidavit. He could "wake people up," he said.

"I don't know. Sometimes you just get a little snap and man, it was fricking exciting," Moreno told detectives. "I just had it and I was committed. I just went for it. I had one chance."

It's unclear if he intended to hit the ship directly or just crash near it.

Security cameras inside the train's cab captured him hurtling toward the end of the tracks, the affidavit says. He made no attempt to pull back the throttle, no attempt to engage the brakes, instead putting the train in full speed.

At the last minute, Moreno lit a flare. He looked up at the camera, raising his middle finger to it. Then, just before the train smashed through the concrete barriers, he stuck the flare out the window, keeping it there all the way through impact.

He told the detectives, "I can't wait to see the video."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/04/02/train-derails-usns-mercy-coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR1m-yjkjvyzyko4Yqzix9ugkW3hyRH7artcG2TMsDlv4rcYaCZPv_xAWXQ&utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook

[celedhring]

Sav?

[mongers]

Sav?

He's already check-in over the story further up the thread. 

[Sheilbh]

Okay they're showing slides again and hospital admissions are increasing, but it's not really accelerating/getting steeper which is good news.

Extraordinary that London's got about 4000 admissions to now, given that the Nightingale will double that.

But going to take a few weeks to see.

Edit: Also I think Matt Hancock is quite good at this - brings the experts in, allows follow up questions. I feel like it's obviously difficult on communications when the PM and Health Secretary have to self-isolate, but I feel like it would be good to basically have a few core politicians giving statements. There's been quite a wide range over the last week.

Edit: And early academic evidence that the transmission rate is below 1 which is very promising - but obviously take a while to see.

[Maladict]

In other news, the crazy contagion spreads:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/engineer-allegedly-crash-train-usns-mercy-los-angeles/story?id=69926172&fbclid=IwAR1PcHEzUQZXihaA8kM2fDcV_veDn34ssKJwpxWs471mgOQGZRhwEqEuqwY

I wonder if Sav will be as upset as I am about this:

It's not a train unless the locomotive/s have rolling stock or carriages connected to it.   

NB it's not clear from the photos video if the nearby container was linked to the locomotive or not, so I'm ignoring it to benefit the 'joke'. 

I was more upset about the ship being called a boat.

[Savonarola]

Sav?

Liep is the one who drives the trains (well he used to).

[Savonarola]

Moreno, 44, was charged Wednesday in federal court with one count of train wrecking

Now that's a charge you don't see everyday (fortunately.)  Once again this demonstrates the need for Positive Train Control everywhere.

[Admiral Yi]

Now that's a charge you don't see everyday (fortunately.)  Once again this demonstrates the need for Positive Train Control everywhere.

What's your commission on each Positive Train Control system you sell on Languish? 

[Zanza]

Close to ten million new filings for unemployment in the last two weeks in the USA, about 900.000 in Spain. Not looking good for the economy. Let's see how long this can be sustained.

4 million on a scheme were the government pays most of their income in France.

[HVC]

Trumps buddy Putin is sending America 60 tonnes of medical supplies to America.

[alfred russel]

Trumps buddy Putin is sending America 60 tonnes of medical supplies to America.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth and all, but do we really want russian shit?

[Valmy]

Trumps buddy Putin is sending America 60 tonnes of medical supplies to America.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth and all, but do we really want russian shit?

It was probably all made in China anyway.

[Admiral Yi]

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth and all, but do we really want russian shit?

We could send it to Alabama.

[Sheilbh]

Trumps buddy Putin is sending America 60 tonnes of medical supplies to America.

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth and all, but do we really want russian shit?

The Russian help that's come to Europe has been delivered by their army in big branded military vehicles and had a high rate of not really working. So it might not be the best deal.

[Sheilbh]

In policing that I can probably agree with, Essex Police have clarified that "collecting drugs is not essential travel"