BONNERS FERRY, Idaho — One crew member was taken to the hospital with a wrist injury after a low-speed, head-on collision between two Union Pacific trains on Monday, the Bonners Ferry Herald reports.
The trains collided at an estimated 17 mph shortly before noon, Boundary County public information officer Andrew O’Neel told the newspaper. One train was moving grain and the other was hauling empty log cars; there was no derailment and no spill of cargo or fuel.
Bonners Ferry, on UP’s Spokane Sudivision, the former Spokane International Railroad, is approximately 30 miles from the Canadian border on the Idaho panhandle and about 105 miles from Spokane, Wash.. The line connects with CPKC at Kingsgate, British Columbia.
PTC doesn’t work below 20 mph, at or below 20 the engineer is in control and should be looking out half the range of vision with his train under control.
This is what, three UP accidents in two weeks?
Surely the activist investors will be calling for Vena’s immediate termination…😏
We must not ever think that technology will ever replace a well-rested trained operator in the cab. The wrist injury is an anomaly considering that either train didn’t derail. Unless. of course, it was the sudden stop that brought about the injury.
Mass times speed squared. You do the math. M x S2 = CRASH!
Even more amazing if each train was moving at 17, then would’t it be like a single crash into a barrier at 34? Or was one train stationary? Dispatcher problem or did one train blow through a red signal? Note: not ALL tracks are PTC controlled.
Amazing 17 mph, only a wrist injury and nothing derailed.
The article does not say if it was in the yard or on the main line. Doesn’t this PTC work just great!
This was on the main. Probably near Vay, the location of a siding.