Originally Posted by
s0ssos
This latest incident on Amtrak with multiple fatalities just seems another string in the line of US train incidents. Rarely are there incidents in other countries, and they actually have trains that go fast.
So ironic how airline safety is pretty good in the US, and the trains are the worst.
You might want to read this about
European railroad injuries and deaths.
In absolute terms, Table 2 shows that four countries accounted for more than half of all rail victims registered in the EU-28 in 2013, namely Poland, Germany, Spain and Romania.
From a
2013 Washington Post article:
U.S. train accidents declined by 43 percent from 3,019 in 2004 to 1,734 in 2012, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. While classified as “accidents,” many of those incidents were minor and resulted in no deaths or injuries.
The railroad administration last year reported 701 railway-related deaths, the vast majority of which involved pedestrians being struck at crossings or cars smashing into trains.
Nine people died last year as a direct result of “train accidents,” a definition that includes events such as derailments or train collisions, though those numbers do not include light rail or subways such as the Washington area’s Metro system.
Those figures pale in comparison with the number of deaths on U.S. highways each year. The NTSB says 32,367 lost their lives in automobile accidents in 2011. Putting the numbers into greater perspective, 758 people died in recreational boating accidents in 2011. Adding every form of marine accident, such as commercial fishing boats, brought the toll to only 800, the NTSB said.
Although the U.S. has the world’s safest railways, federal officials are reacting to recent events.