Exclusive Footage: Spain high speed train crashes near Santiago de Compostela [COMPLETE VIDEO] – YouTube: this looks a great deal like a bomb attack. The rails were sound, the station is all straight rails, there were no other vehicles or trains on the track and the first car is blown to shreds and thrown up in the air whereas the other cars were in an accordion behind it.
Over 50 people are dead most of whom were in the first car. Spain is under tremendous stress with high unemployment, the full IMF strictures on spending and lots of regional tribalism which harkens back to the Roman Era and the Islamic rule in the Dark to Middle Ages.
Santiago de Compostela – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is the former ‘capital’ of Galicia which has its own language. During the Dark Ages, it was part of the Kingdom of Asturias. Galicia is like many parts of Europe and the British Commonwealth, that is, they always struggle to have their ‘autonomy’. This leads to urban battles periodically when times are difficult and unemployment is high.
This is true everywhere: bad employment conditions breeds ‘terrorism’ as people do various things they would not do if they were satisfied with the status quo and kept busy, working. This is why the plot of the capitalist bankers to drive wages down and increase unemployment is so very, very stupid.
We shall see if it is a bomb, of course. I am only speculating here but the chances are rather high.
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Have to wait and see. Meanwhile we don’t have to wait to see that Lindsey Graham is a raving Lunatic. http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/07/lindsey-graham-wants-war-iran-end-summer/67527/
I am sick to death of having his kind of insanity masquerading as conservatism. He and that useless warmongering ninny John McCain are constantly scheming to get the country in to new overseas quagmires. I saw either here or somewhere else that McCain just happens to get a bunch of cash from AIPAC.
“Ceterum autem censeo Carthaginem esse delendam”. Lindsey Graham knows his history (which is a wonder)! Historia magistra vitae, isn’t it? The classical example how to provoke a war against a nation which “overstepped the line in the sand” (we don’t know whether it was red!).
I visited the Hanoi Hilton a couple of years ago. It is a museum now, and still has a perfectly functional Guillotine.
Clever Vietnamese – they visited retribution on America by sending McCain home in one piece.
I must have added to my previous comment: what you need is a lunatic, raving senator (you may add a gaga senator) to repeat obsessively the same mantra (Iran must be destroyed our paymasters demand that).
The latest news out of Spain states that the train was speeding: 190 km/hr in a 80 km/hr zone.
Why is the maximum speed of these trains left to the driver and not under computer control?
Perhaps the driver could override the computer but only at the loss of his job if done without a good reason.
Just the other day in Canada, before the oil train ran into town blowing up everyone, a similar train going through a switch change did it 4X faster, 65 mph rather than 15, and had a similar crash.
So the question again is, why did the trains in both cases speed so fast through a station? The drivers in the Canada train disaster which was roughly a year ago, died.
No trains over in Canada have a ‘black box’ with recordings of the engineers like planes have and the push to do this keeps faltering due mainly to the train people refusing to spend the money (!!!!).
I don’t know if Spain requires this. Should find out,
The train had black boxes, I read a comment from one official that they were waiting for the information in them.
Here is a link to a CCTV camera uptake of the crash. Looks simply as if the train came into the curve with far too high speed.
Looks like bomb attack – check the clip when clock (bottom right showing) 24/07/2013 20:44:04 and you can see sparc – most likely comming from explosion before derail.
From Wikipedia: The Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS) is a train protection system deployed across the entire UK passenger railway network, as well as in Victoria, Australia. It automatically activates brakes on any train that has passed a signal at danger or is overspeeding. It is fitted at selected sites, including some lines where automatic train protection (ATP) is installed.
Undoubtedly the high-speed rail system in Spain has this feature as well. The commuter railway systems in the USA also have ‘trips’ and ‘switches’ to prevent the motorman from speeding and to prevent runaway trains.
One last point. The train movement/speed is real-time monitored in a high-tech setting of large display computerized screens in the rail control center. See links
http://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/arch-showcase/2011/11/08/railway-control-center-in-albacete-spain-by-moreno-del-valle-arquitectos-slp/?interstitial_displayed=Yes
Here’s a 2012 article from the Frezno Bee about Spain’s high-speed rail about the safety controls.
Excerpt: What California can learn from Spain’s high-speed rail
Where to begin?
The Talgo trains — nicknamed Pato (“Duck” in English) because of their streamlined, elongated noses — are capable of doing 205 mph, but the maximum operating speed is supposed to be 186 mph.
No doubt that technicians for both Renfe and ADIF, sitting in front of computer consoles in Madrid, knew exactly when and where Jimenez bent the speed limit. Sensors embedded along the rail line and GPS sensors aboard the trains feed a constant stream of real-time information back to the control centers.
Large screens on the walls of Renfe’s control center at the Puerto de Atocha station show operators the exact location and speed of each train in the system, duplicating the information on the smaller computer monitors. Video screens also show trains as they enter and leave stations…..”Our Spanish technology has increased because of the high-speed,” said Campo Jori, ADIF’s international projects manager. “We started by learning from the French, the Germans and the Japanese, but now we have our own technology. Our companies are benefiting from 1992 to now because of high-speed.”
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/01/14/2681852/spanish-lessons-what-california.html#storylink=cpy
Not a bomb.
The driver drove 180 km/h to a corner that had 80 km/h speed limit.
Trains going over 200 km/h on the other hand are not a common problem in the US?
😉
From MIT Technology Review, a video of Spain’s Train Car operations, attributes and repairs: Take a closer look at the technological innovations in the Spanish rail systems, from switching systems to car construction and the science of advanced train maintenance.
http://icex.technologyreview.com/media/train-car-operations-attributes-and-repair/
JT, Welcome to the 21st century; many trains are automated and do not require a motorman in the cab.
SPAIN ON THE FAST TRACK
….AN AUTOMATED RIDE
In the first car of Barcelona’s new driverless subway lines, passengers perch by the window and watch as the train rushes along the tracks and dips into tunnels. Far from inspiring fear of a lack of safety (a common concern for planners of driver-free lines), the conductor- free trains have become something of a tourist attraction.
….In the past, driverless trains operated on tracks equipped with detectors to determine whether a train was on top of that particular segment. The latest system that Dimetronic and other companies have developed is called communication- based train control (CBTC) and involves constant radio com- munication between the track and the train. With this system, the control center is aware at all times of the exact location of every train, and can communicate directly with the train in real time to avoid dangerous situations. This technology also involves energy-saving algorithms, such as one that detects a downhill gradient and instructs a train not to accelerate, since the downhill slope will accelerate the train without any increase in power. CBTC-controlled trains can increase the capacity of a given line up to about 30 percent more passengers per day.
HIGH-SPEEDRAIL – New Technologies from Spain – Technology …
icex.technologyreview.com/articles/…/high-speed-rail/high-speed-rail.pd…
@rps
on subways yes.
I think my hometown will have a siemens automated subway.
It will be ready in 2015.
not a bomb, you can see the cars derail before the explosion
Meanwhile in the U.S., a nineteen year old Trayvon wannabe pulls a gun on a black priest, calls him the N-word, then steals his SUV. Police apprehend him playing Basketball. http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/07/24/priest-carjacked-in-front-of-church-in-wilmington/
You know on that train, you would think the controls would be programmed to make it impossible to speed.
train just like spain banks haha!
Good video here from CCTV of the moment train derails at the corner (Reuters):
http://goo.gl/vJXovz
Not a bomb, the spark happens when the connection to the overhead power line is broken.
But, all this talk of automated controls … stuxnet, anyone?
Saw someone comment that in Spain passengers can get reimbursed if the train is late, the guy making the comment said he got 50% back after a train was 45 mins late. And… the driver can have his salary reduced if the train isn’t on time. Also apparently the system at this part of the rail was not fully automated to prevent speeding.
“Efficiency” and “cost saving” measures…
@christian w
I read somewhere that the train drivers used to make videos of overspeeeding and considered that funny,
Those spaniards like motorsports too much.
Stupid is relative.
If I am an investment capitalist, I want to buy when there is blood in the streets.
Is it my imagination or have there been a lot of travel disasters highlighted by media recently? I can think of 2 plane incidents two train wrecks a bridge collapse etc….
As for bomb not bomb for the spanish train…who know? Just cause the media says no doesn’t mean squat to me.
Off topic. Haliburton will walk, having to pay 200k for destroying evidence.
Haliburtons stock is up this a.m. BP is happy. Oil spill is in the past.
Yes, it now appears clearly that SPEEDING caused the accident. Many accidents are actually human stupidity. And there was another Gulf disaster this time, gas blowing up a rig.
The ship accident in Italy, by the way, was due 100% to human stupidity. Taking turns too fast or speeding through intersecting track zones cause huge accidents and many deaths as does not braking a parked train hauling oil or sailing too close to the rocks to entertain a cute female visiting the captain…what is wrong with people who do these stupid things?
I’m kind of amazed that it’s even possible for someone to speed to the extent of this case. You would think that every stretch of track would be mapped out as to maximum allowable speed , and that a GPS system would constantly display that maximum speed at a particular point to the conductor. I also sometimes think that what causes such human error accidents is that more and more people lack basic knowledge of basic physics, i.e. centripetal-centrifugal force. Or that knowing the laws of physics, they don’t apply to us.
@elaine
“what is wrong with people who do these stupid things?”
amore? lussuria?
The moron train conductor was going at 190 km/h in the curve while the maximum speed allowed was 80 km/h. On his twitter page, he boasted to his friends that he would like to reach a speed of 200 km/h and make faces to the police as he passed them by. It seems many of these spanish train conductors were on a contest to reach the fastest speed irrespective of the allowed limits. He killed 80 persons and harmed a lot more.
@JT
re. “what is wrong…”
Rumors are that the captain of the Italian ship was just shagging a Moldovan beauty. It is then “lussuria”.
@seraphim
Since EU now wants to be one country we should start sharing work.
Italians can cook and sing love songs (canzione dell’amore).
But we should not let anyone say south of Copenhagen fly or steer anything with passengers.
Reponsibility and cool heads is not the mediterranian specialty.
They should let Finns drive, steer and fly everything over here in Europe.
We’re the only ones any good at it.
Pretty much all world rally champions are from finland (7 champions, 14 championships)
Formula one (3 champions, 4 championships)
Finnair’s last lethal accident was in WWII, a plane shot down by Sovjet Union (World’s safest airline, flying MD11’s which are not safe at all)
Last lethal train accident here was in 1998
Those hot blooded people are always hitting something, that is just a fact of life.
Cooler heads needed….
Finnish pilots…
They should have WOMEN drive things. We aren’t half as crazy as males. Better still, a woman with a baby. Then we are terrified of speeding and doing dangerous things.
@elaine
😀
That is propably true.
A babyseat would not take a lot of room from the cockpit.
I thought they might have female captains here.
Here’s a picture from women’s day this year.
Since the 90’s already.
The automated system did not cover this part of the track in Spain.
It had ended a few kilometers before the accident site.
The automation is not cheap. Subways are a different matter.
How many thousand miles of tracks is there in Canada?
Maybe it gives the drivers a false sense of security?
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/28/19734279-driver-of-derailed-spanish-train-charged-with-79-counts-of-homicide?lite