Trains collide, trigger highway bridge collapse in Missouri

[jimmy olsen]

They're collapsing everywhere!

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/25/18490608-seven-injured-in-missouri-as-trains-collide-trigger-highway-bridge-collapse?lite

By Patrick Garrity, NBC News

Two freight trains collided and derailed early Saturday in southeast Missouri, then triggered the collapse of a highway overpass when several rail cars struck a support pillar.

Seven people were injured, including two personnel on the trains and five individuals in cars on the overpass on Highway M near Scott City, about 120 miles south of St. Louis, NBC affiliate KSDK reported. All the injured were treated for minor injuries and released.

The collision occurred before dawn at a rail intersection.
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"One train T-boned the other one and caused it to derail, and the derailed train hit a pillar which caused the overpass to collapse," Scott County Sheriff's dispatcher Clay Slipis told Reuters.

The crash, which involved BNSF Railway Co and Union Pacific trains, also ignited a fire when diesel fuel leaked from one of the train engines, Slipis said.

The crash came just over a week after a commuter train derailed in Connecticut, striking another train and injuring more than 70 people during the evening rush hour.

On Friday, a truck crash caused the collapse of a bridge in Washington state, sending two cars plunging into the Skagit River. Three people were rescued.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it had dispatched a team to investigate the train crash.

Union Pacific said its train had been primarily carrying auto parts from Illinois to Texas. The Union Pacific locomotive and about a dozen cars derailed in the crash.

BNSF said that its train had been hauling scrap metal from salvage facilities and was heading south along the Missouri River.

Reuters contributed to this report.

[Caliga]

No they're not.  Relax.

[Liep]

A derailed train almost took out a bridge here too a couple of months ago.

[CountDeMoney]

Wake me when a bridge takes out two trains.

[11B4V]

Nice graffiti. Savages 

[Liep]

Nice graffiti. Savages 

The National Guard had to protect our newest train the days before the debute trip, spefically to avoid it being tagged.

Now they look like this

[garbon]

Pretty trashy. What are you aiming for, New York back in the day?

[Liep]

Yeah, it's not pretty. I was once prevented from going on to a platform by a masked guy with a baseball club. He was guarding four other masked guys who were tagging my train.

I didn't tackle him.

[CountDeMoney]

Well, it's stupid.  Even our idiots got that shit out of their systems in the late '70s.

[Liep]

It was actually these guys. HM something. And there's a lot of idiots, that upright to the right only has one tag, most have 4-5 different tags. And they're 50 m apart on at least 300 km of track.

[Liep]

Germans also stuck in 70's, battles idiots with technology.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22678580

German railways to test anti-graffiti drones
Germany's national railway company, Deutsche Bahn, plans to test small drones to try to reduce the amount of graffiti being sprayed on its property.
The idea is to use airborne infra-red cameras to collect evidence, which could then be used to prosecute vandals who deface property at night.
A company spokesman said drones would be tested at rail depots soon.
But it is not yet clear how Germany's strict anti-surveillance laws might affect their use.
Graffiti is reported to cost Deutsche Bahn about 7.6m euros (£6.5m; $10m) a year.
German media report that each drone will cost about 60,000 euros and fly almost silently, up to 150m (495ft) above ground.
The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says using cameras to film people surreptitiously is a sensitive issue in Germany, where privacy is very highly valued.
Google privacy row
When Google sent its cameras through the country three years ago to build up its "Street View" of 20 cities, many people objected to their houses appearing online. Even Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said: "I will do all I can to prevent it".
Such was the opposition that Google was compelled to give people an opt-out. If householders indicated that they did not want their homes shown online, then the fronts of the buildings would be blurred. More than 200,000 householders said that they did want their homes blanked out on Street View.
A Deutsche Bahn spokesman told the BBC that its drones would be used in big depots where vandals enter at night and spray-paint carriages. The drones would have infra-red sensors sophisticated enough for people to be identified, providing key evidence for prosecutions.
But it seems the cameras would be tightly focused within Deutsche Bahn's own property - people or property outside the depots would not be filmed, so easing any privacy concerns, our correspondent says.
The drone issue is also sensitive in Germany because earlier this month the defence ministry halted an expensive project to develop Germany's own surveillance drone, called Euro Hawk.
The huge unmanned aircraft would be used abroad but would need to be able to fly in German airspace, if only to take off and land on their way to and from the land to be watched, our correspondent reports.
But it became clear that the air traffic authorities were not going to grant that permission. The reasoning was that Germany's military drones would be unable to avoid collisions with other, civilian aircraft.
Small drones on private land do not need permission from air traffic controllers - big drones do.
So Germany seems to be entering a legal grey area - it is not clear when the flight of a drone may become so extensive that the wider authorities need to intervene, Stephen Evans reports.

[Barrister]

Since when do you have a privacy interest when you are on the railway company's private property without permission?

[Tonitrus]

Since when do you have a privacy interest when you are on the railway company's private property without permission?

[garbon]

Germans also stuck in 70's, battles idiots with technology.

Well presumably drones could be cheaper than the actual man hours NYC had to invest back then.