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All across the Great Western territory => The Wider Picture Overseas => Topic started by: grahame on February 18, 2020, 21:39:02



Title: USA / Railroad death rate
Post by: grahame on February 18, 2020, 21:39:02
From the Daily Mail (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-8017127/1-person-dead-high-speed-train-hits-car-Florida.html)

Quote
POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (AP) - One person died Tuesday morning when a car was hit by a high speed train in South Florida, officials said.

The Brightline train, which operates between Miami and West Palm Beach, struck the car at an intersection in Pompano Beach about 10:12 a.m. Tuesday, said sheriff's spokeswoman Gerdy St. Louis. One person was confirmed dead.

Witnesses to the crash said the vehicle went around the guard rails, a Brightline spokesman told The Associated Press.

More than 40 people have been killed by the train, which travels at speeds up to 79 mph (127 kph) through some of Florida's most densely populated cities, according to records. An analysis of data by The Associated Press in December found the death rate is about one for every 29,000 miles (47,000 kilometers) the trains have traveled, which is the worst per-mile death rate of the nation's 821 railroads.

A sobering statistic ... has me wondering what the UK figure is.  Noting the figure quoted relates to all deaths and not just passenger deaths which are minuscule in the overall total.


Title: Re: USA / Railroad death rate
Post by: eightf48544 on February 19, 2020, 10:37:38
Does it include staff deaths?


Title: Re: USA / Railroad death rate
Post by: TonyK on February 20, 2020, 11:01:50
I've had a look at ORR's statistics for 2018-19. (https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/passenger-rail-usage/) From these, we see that:
  • the total number of kilometres travelled by trains (national rail network and London Underground) was 150,500,000. This represented 142m Km passenger and 8.5m Km freight.
  • the total number of fatalities was 331. This represented 2 workforce, 17 passengers (13 national rail, 4 London Underground, none as a result of an accident on a train as a passenger), 10 accidents to other members of the public and 302 suicides or apparent suicides.

To give the UK equivalent of the Florida statistic, there is one fatality on average every 454,683 Km (282,527 miles) travelled by a train. Taking suicides from the calculation, there is one death every 5,189,655 Km (3,224,702 miles). That makes the incidence around a tenth of the Florida number if suicides are included or less than one percent if they are not.

2018/19 was the 12th successive year without a single fatality of a passenger on a train on the national rail network or London Underground, the last being the Pendolino accident at Grayrigg.


Title: Re: USA / Railroad death rate
Post by: grahame on January 13, 2024, 19:53:12
Four years later - the Florida toll continues

From Yahoo News (https://news.yahoo.com/ntsb-investigating-2-brightline-high-170504703.html)

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NTSB investigating 2 Brightline high speed train crashes that killed 3 people in Florida this week

FORT LAUDERDALE Fla. (AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday it will investigate two crashes involving Florida's Brightline train that killed three people at the same railroad crossing on the high speed train's route between Miami and Orlando.

The crashes happened Wednesday and Friday at a crossing along the U.S. 1 corridor in Melbourne, on Florida's Atlantic coast, where the high speed train passes through on its daily routes to and from South Florida. Since Brightline launched the 160-mile extension that links South Florida and Orlando in September, there have been five deaths, according to an Associated Press database.

Friday's crash killed driver Lisa Ann Batchelder, 52, and passenger Michael Anthony Degasperi, 54, both of Melbourne. On Wednesday, 62-year-old Charles Julian Phillips was killed when the vehicle he was driving was hit by the train. Three passengers in that vehicle were injured, according to Melbourne police.

Melbourne Mayor Paul Alfrey told reporters at the scene that the SUV tried to outrun the train. He said he's spoken to Brightline officials about doing another public safety campaign to warn drivers not to go around railroad crossings because the train is traveling at higher speeds.

“I start by saying if the arm is down don’t go around,” Alfrey told Orlando television station WKMG. “There’s no good outcome with a train. This is an unfortunate situation. We have the loss of life again. There’s safety precautions for a reason, and people need to adhere them.”

The bright, neon yellow trains travel at speeds up to 125 mph (201 kph) in some locations. The 3.5-hour, 235-mile (378-kilometer) trip between Miami and Orlando takes about 30 minutes less than the average drive.


Title: Re: USA / Railroad death rate
Post by: stuving on January 13, 2024, 20:38:11
Four years later - the Florida toll continues

From Yahoo News (https://news.yahoo.com/ntsb-investigating-2-brightline-high-170504703.html)

Quote
NTSB investigating 2 Brightline high speed train crashes that killed 3 people in Florida this week

I know there's a huge number of grade crossing along that line, and was wondering how many. I found a forum post saying "Brightline has 328 grade crossings in about 190 miles apparently." That sounds quite plausible. Brightline did improve some of those, by adding central reservations so you can't dodge round the barriers etc. But Floridans are just not used to trains that arrive before you hear the horn sound.

NSTB have not posted that investigation yet, though they do have at least one already underway on Brightline. They classify grade crossing accidents under highways, which looks odd - but maybe isn't. The one I did find involved a vehicle stopping on one track to wait for a freight train on the other, before the barrier came down behind it. There was a fast train the other way as well ...



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